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Julie Denesha |
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The Outcasts Of Slovakia |
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June 27 - August 22, 2006 Opening Talk: |
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Artist's Statement
"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his
point of view... |
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Much is expected of us in this world and it is not always possible to see beyond our own, daily struggle. A walk across the street can feel like a step into another world, yet our neighbors are not so very different from us. In this busy society, it is a photographer's task to seek out the universal qualities that help us recognize ourselves in others, to help us all understand that there is no them. On my first visit to Slovakia in 1997, the differences between white Slovak communities and Roma ghettoes appeared vast. The Roma lived on the fringes of society in isolated shantytowns without running water or sanitation. Roma children were tracked into segregated schools and most adults were unemployed. In a country facing immense social and economic changes, great tension and fear accentuated these differences. In the summer of 2000, Anastazia Balazova tried to intervene when, in a racist attack, intruders burst into her home and started beating her daughters with baseball bats. Two days later, the 50-year-old Roma mother of eight was dead from severe head injuries. |
As I watched the bewildered, grieving family gather and prepare to bury their mother, I became convinced that if the white Slovaks could see their quiet dignity and only knew more about the Roma, they might feel differently about their neighbors. I took it as a personal challenge to do just that. In the summer of 2003, I lived in wattle-and-daub huts with Roma families in four different communities, documenting daily life in isolated settlements. Most of the families I came to know struggled to survive, working hard and getting nowhere. A poor man has a slim margin for error and to live in abject poverty is to live a life walking on the edge of an abyss. It is my great hope that my images provide a window into their lives: in an attempt to introduce neighbor to neighbor. |
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Bio From 1996 to 2004, Julie Denesha was based in Prague, Czech Republic, where she covered Central and Eastern Europe for a number of newspapers and magazines. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Time, Newsweek, The Economist and The Christian Science Monitor. Her project on the Roma was a featured photo essay on AOL Visions in Focus. Julie has recently been awarded a Fulbright for photography to continue her work on the Roma in Slovakia. |
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Curated by Michelle Jackson |
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Previous exhibitions at The Half King For further information on these exhibits, please go here.
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