The life of Foreigners – my photographic reflections.
As has happened to me many times before, I wrote the title and stopped typing for a while. I chose these images last night with the idea to put a short photo story to my IG profile today, but was to busy at work. During the day in my mind I returned again and again to these photographs. What was this Chinese guy thinking about why exactly was he happy, crossed half the globe to work here on a construction site and feed the pigeons on weekends? The theme of foreign workers has been bothering me for a long time.
Maybe I’m wondering how he feels – no language, no worries about elections, feeling like you’re just a tourist working a lot, but it won’t last forever. The taste of the different food, the strange smell of pastry shops, not familiar sounds on the busy streets, and even the sirens warning of a ballistic missile attack don’t sound frightening. After all, the missiles aren’t aimed at you personally. And in all this chaos, there’s someone to care about. Someone who’s happy to see you every weekend.
The flock of bored birds was my object, and suddenly this guy changed the vibes, when arrived on his bicycle and a bag of food for them. Unlike many other workers who weren’t too keen to be in the frame, this one was very happy and even allowed me to take a portrait that would soon be developed i hopefully also scanned. We didn’t have a common language. I absolutely forget about the Google translator. but seems like the sign language was very familiar to him and we understood each other very well. He gestured for me to join him for a self portrait with the background of happy birds, so, who knows, maybe I became really popular on Chinese TikTok.
And now about my interest to the theme of “foreigners”. I moved here from Kazakhstan in 1993. I remember all my initial feelings of the first minutes-days-months and even years of the living here. The sounds of the new environment, the smells of unfamiliar food that I felt as I walked along the central streets, the sound of a language completely incomprehensible to me, the overwhelming feeling of a lost, but happy tourist, understanding of the political and social life of the country and the ability to maintain a positive mood despite a complete lack of funds. I clearly remember that many local residents in those years avoided new arrivals, especially from the countries of the former USSR. but still there were some curious who wanted to get closer and understand what it’s like to start a new life in absolutely foreign country. Looks like I’m one of those curious ones.
I will continue this theme with my documentary photographs taken under different circumstances, but connected by one theme – how to suddenly find yourself as a stranger in a new, unfamiliar society and how to go through changes, but also to preserve oneself as a person.
I planned to publish this post with the only four images from the moment which I described above, but finally added four additional photos, perfectly complementing the theme. The first is the dude with a traditional flat-front wooden cricket bat. I met the group of guys from India playing every weekend on the same site. The second is a Taiwanese chef grateful to me when I said thank you for the delicious dinner. And two final photos from the wedding in an Eritrean family. More is coming.
