Alisa Martynova’s project Nowhere Near is a metaphorical tale about dreams and migration which examines African migration in Europe, particularly Italy, France, and the UK. Alisa decided to draw an imaginary path crossing three countries following a stereotypical vision of African migration, where Italy is presented as the arrival place, France as the “waiting for departure” place, and the UK as the “wished-for” place. Speaking about her intent for the project, she says ‘I started my project in Florence, Italy, where I live, when the topic of migration was discussed everywhere, from newspapers and television to street and social networks. Not all opinions that I heard seemed right to me. More than everything, migration was spoken about in terms of numbers and statistics, and rarely from a personal human point of view. People were widely exposed to crude and often violent images and texts. Nonetheless, this kind of approach is essential to inform people of the situation, and after some time it causes a deafening effect. It almost contributes to the construction of a barrier between the subject of the news and the readers. People get used to the stories and photographs and have no more empathetic response to them. In my project, I wanted to invert this and speak more about what it was to be a migrant on a personal level.’
Adopting a traditional documentary approach to a large project, she spent a lot of time initially without her camera, speaking to psychologists and people who worked with migrants, trying to understand how best she could represent through images and metaphors the feeling of being a migrant. This gave her the foundations from which she could start shooting the project which was undertaken in Italy, France and the UK from 2018-23. She adopts an almost poetical approach to her projects, drawing on historical and scientific studies to help develop metaphors in her images which are at times deliberately vague, giving the viewer sufficient individual freedom to interpret the work.
She says ‘I truly enjoyed meeting the people I portrayed for the project. Many of them had fascinating stories to tell and were incredibly interesting people to talk to. For instance, I met Clayton. He came to Italy from Cameroon to study and when he was looking for a job to sustain himself during his university studies, he asked himself a question: what is there in Florence that is missing that I can bring in? He noticed that there was no school of African dancing. So he taught himself how to teach dancing and opened a course in a local dance school. Now he has a lot of students, is very active on social networks and holds dance challenges. He often goes on to the streets of Florence and starts dancing, gathering crowds around him who join in. One of his greatest dreams is to teach Europeans to move as freely as Africans.’
She entered the RPS DPA 23 because ‘I wanted to bring my work to the UK to be seen. I believe the more people have access to this kind of documentary work the more it has a chance to bring change to society and also connect different migration stories across countries. Receiving this award is a very big accomplishment and recognition for me.’
Raindrops symbolize the splashing water and storms in migrants’ stories, Livorno, Italy. I also see them as a metaphor for stars flung out into space as the result of the collision of two balck holes, and as representing the unknown: a place both attractive and terrifying, holding hope as well as nightmares.Alisa Martynova
Christ sitting in a room. He was born in Gabon and came to Italy with some of his relatives to study economy at the University. He is studying and works part-time as a guardian in a pharmacy.Alisa Martynova
The desert rose is a particular crystal that forms in arid and sandy conditions. Another name is “selenite rose” or “moonstone”. These rocks can be found in various countries around the world, including the African countries of Tunisia, Libya, Morocco and Algeria, which appear to be the countries from which some of the migrants come. Shape of the rose is quite mysterious and while I was rolling it in my hands I saw that from a certain point of view looks like an extraterrestrial, a meteorite.Alisa Martynova
Roena sitting in a room. She originally came to Italy from Gabon to study. I asked her to pose for me, I asked her to sit and move in a slight way so I could understand what pose may be natural to her. I noticed that she lifted her shoulders because they were stiff from sitting straight, I found it beautiful and I asked her to stay still in that posture.Alisa Martynova
Mahamadou is half-Senegalese, half-Gambian and fled his country as a refugee after taking part in a university demonstration. He lives and works around Florence, Italy, on a long-term contract. To take this picture I invited him for a walk in the woods. When I saw that aperture of the trees, I asked him to stand still among the trees.Alisa Martynova
Leopard is one of the totem animals in the culture of some parts of the African continent, because of its discretion, the leopard is a shrewd figure in African legends: it has the reputation of erasing its tracks with its tail as it progresses. Some African kings wore hoods or cloaks in leopard fur, or covered the thrones with a leopard skin.Alisa Martynova
Bamba wearing his traditional African suit and the necklace figuring the shape of African continent that he asked his parents to send to him from Senegal. He now lives in one of the cities in Normandy, goes to school and plays football in a local team.Alisa Martynova
Abou comes from Mali and now lives in one of the cities in Normandy.Alisa Martynova
Rocks on the seaside of Normandy under the rain.Alisa Martynova
Marie, who came to Normandy a few years ago from Rwanda, on the coast of the English channel. “Marie values her native culture and has written two books about it, one in French and another in Rwandese. Marie told me about her childhood memories: growing up in a village surrounded by nature, her fondness for traditional ceremonies, and a special way of cooking sweet potatoes she prepared with her classmates after school. Marie regrets that people in Rwanda are slowly losing their traditions.Alisa Martynova
Alisa Martynova
Blessing is originally from Nigeria, she came to Italy a few years ago, and works in Livorno, Italy, as a childminder. She is married and has a child of her own. She told me that she used to have strange and colourful dreams, like red rivers etc and some of my landscapes have come from those visions. I asked Blessing to come with me to the rocky seaside in Livorno and asked her to move slightly, so I could picture the movement of hers and the waves.Alisa Martynova
Rock formation resembling a human face in Tuscany, Italy.Alisa Martynova
Steve Kevin (who prefers to use the name Clayton) dances at the seaside in Castiglioncello, Tuscany, Italy. He came to Italy from Cameroon to study, and is setting up a dance school to teach traditional African dance. I invited Clayton for a walk on the seaside and since he is a dancer, I asked to dance one of the traditional African dances to represent his story.Alisa Martynova
Kifoula in the woods near the coastline of the English channel. Kifoula came to Normandy, France, from Brazzaville after the civil war in Congo and currently performs in several theatre and dance companies in Normandy. “Kifoula told me that he was concerned that a lot of people who managed to get to Europe from African countries were losing, or even rejecting, their roots. He believes that founding a local community of fellow countrymen can help to preserve their native culture, and language.Alisa Martynova
