In the past few years, governments, institutions, and the media have used the expression “refugee crisis” to describe the rising numbers of undocumented individuals and families fleeing to Europe. These people, who come from countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq, are escaping difficult conditions, including war, poverty, persecution, and human rights violations. Hoping to start a new life in Europe, thousands of refugees have braved the Mediterranean Sea on board inflatable boats and makeshift vessels, driven by an idea of the European dream.
‘Where the west sets’ is a documentary project that attempts to chronicle this crisis as it plays out on the northern Aegean Islands and mainland Greece – the same territories where western culture and its system of values are supposed to have been born. The aesthetics of my work lies in an approach of going to those places, not as a reporter looking for facts, but as a documentarist trying to verify facts. The series of photographs reflects the consequences that the refugee crisis is having on the ‘cradle of civilization,’ where traditional values of respect for other human beings come up against feelings of hostility, fear, and xenophobia among the Greeks.
Mytilene, Agrilia Kratigou’s beach. Thermal devices are used for the patrol and the identification of refugees boats that arrive clandestinely from Turkey. The photograph shows the thermal image of the coast of Western Turkey, near Cesme.
