Darfur in Brooklyn educates audiences about the crisis in the Sudan with a series of portraits of a refugee. Most people are not able to picture what a person from Darfur looks like, let alone understand the country they came from and comprehend the scope of the genocide that drove them from their homes and brought them here.

 

Quite possibly you have passed someone from Darfur on the street and did not even know it. Darfur in Brooklyn enters into the home a Sundanese refugee in New York City, educating viewers with images of life far removed from their own. Yet many Americans can relate to the immigrant experience, making this project universal in scope as well.

 

The photographs invite viewers to take a closer look at the people around them, knowing that the taxi driver, store clerk, street vendor or waiter could be an immigrant from a war torn country or a survivor of genocide. Yet it uses the language of fine art photography rather than documentary photography to convey the feelings of isolation and alienation that I felt while shooting.

 

Omar's community of refugees is supportive, but his world is quite small. I focus on the two places where he spends most of his time- his house and his taxi. Some images carry more weight than others, which is why some images are larger and others are smaller. I use this layout on the website and in the printed book.