Gabriela Bulisova-artist talk

The artist talk that I attended was for the wonderful Gabriela Bulisova, who I’ve actually had the pleasure I’ve being a photography student for. Gabriela is a Czechoslovakian photographer who is based in Washington, D.C. yet photographs all over the world. Her work mostly focuses around Iraqi refugees and lifestyles, as well as native Washington, D.C. previously incarcerated women. She works with documentary photography and is constantly sending a message to her audience with her photographs. Documenting internally displaced Iraqi refugees, sometimes forced to flee is Gabriela’s main source of content in her current work. The title of the WGSX colloquium, Women in War, was one of shock to Gabriela, stating “I’m not a war photographer!” Soon though, she said that after viewing her work over and over, she realized why she was asked to participate in this show. Her rich black and white photographs are from years of work, visiting various countries such as Damascus and Syria, getting to know the residents and families that live out their everyday lives there. Although she stated that most of her encounters revolved around beings living in dire situations, “desperate and disillusioned,” she has found a way to tell their stories discreetly, protecting the refugees from any documentation harm. From listening to Gabriela’s stories, I learned a great deal of information about the nations and each individual’s life. Having to travel from one nation to America can be really difficult, the transition can sometimes be too devastating for the refugees though, which sometimes forces them back to Iraq, simply because they feel they have no place here in the U.S. Gabriela photographed several men and women, and even their homes and surroundings, to show her audience the trials and hardships that were taking place in living there. She also stated how she wanted to diminish any identity within the individuals photographed, because honestly they didn’t really have any identity left; that and the obvious reason of protection from terrorists. Most of the people she photographed are still in fear for their lives, mostly due to helping out the United States through translators or military help, which keeps them secluded, away from outside life. One very important fact that Gabriela brought up was that with one photograph of the neighborhood she stayed in, from inside the house looking out a window. She stated that this was the only photograph of the neighborhood because her translator told her it was way too dangerous to be seen in the streets there, especially as a documentary photographer. I don’t know if I could deal with the reality of having to constantly fear for my life and others lives because of photographs that I wanted to document and tell a story with; a story that needs to be told. It shows that Gabriela not only has strength behind the lens but a deep relationship with those in front of the lens as well. The ending of the talk included audio clips from several African American women in D.C. who were recently just let out of incarceration. The photographs displayed during the audio captured the women’s faces and emotions that they described in their stories; how they are dealing with the hardships of being placed back into American society, a society that doesn’t necessarily promote previously incarcerated women. To hear the stories was very emotional for me. As a viewer you get the sense that you should be out there helping these women, and not just the incarcerated women, but the refugees as well. To hear the stories of what they have gone through, and how it’s been hard for them to live their afterlives in America, is really devastating and sad. To know that our country doesn’t give all the help it says it does, to human beings that are in dire needs, is to live in a place that revolves around censorship and denial.