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#blueborder meets Metropole - chatting with Benjamin Wolf

We have already told about the collaboration between our project and the Austrian media outlet Metropole. Against this background, we are happy to introduce you to one of Metropole’s voices and faces: Benjamin Wolf (Managing Editor). What are his insights regarding #blueborder? Are there any similarities between the 5 islands portrayed in the cross-border project by Cafébabel and Austria? Enjoy the reading!

Metropole has an innate feature: being the voice of international folks in Vienna and Austria, a country that lies in the heart of Europe. Bearing that in mind, what might be the blue border surrounding Austria? Are there any specific challenges or even barriers that both Austrian and internationals – be they Europeans or not – face or struggle with?

Austria is a landlocked country, which tends to make it more conservative in outlook. Both the language barriers around the country and the mountains with their deep valleys can be blue borders – they pose a challenge and a hurdle to understanding, but they also permit a great diversity of cultures, views, dialects, cuisines and ways of life to develop. And this exchange, if it happens, is incredibly fruitful. Vienna in particular has been at the center of such exchange for centuries and is now once again. 

To what extent might there be any connection between Vienna, and Austria in general, and the five islands portrayed in #blueborder - perhaps regarding any particular matters that are present in the Austrian political discourse? 

Personally, I felt the strongest connection to Austria with Crete. The story of shepherds who try to keep centuries-old communities and trades alive in a modern world chimes so strongly with the topics we’ve been seeing and discussing for decades now in many small countryside villages and Alpine valleys. That having said, all the stories spoke to me about one thing at the center – what does it mean to be “European,” where do we fit and what is our identity made up of? For Austria, at the heart of the continent and a small country in the midst of a multi-ethnic, multicultural and multilingual Central Europe, this question is just as relevant as for all those islands. 

This is one of the reasons why we started the “Home is where the Herz is” project. Starting in September, we will give a voice to the 10 largest communities in Austria with roots abroad. Check out metropole.at/herz and stay tuned!

Thanks, Benjamin!

...and make sure to check out Metropole’s Facebook and Instagram pages too!

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#MeetTheTeam @Marseille: Hélène Pillon & Barbara Braun

Hélène Pillon, local coordinator in Marseille, is a nomadic journalist who moved to Marseille 4 years ago in order to work on audiovisual projects with young people and prisoners. For the last 5 years, she has been collaborating with Cafébabel and various British and French magazines. She is currently developing a participative web-radio in the northern districts of Marseille.

Barbara Braun, facilitator. “I like to take new challenges and work on projects which connect to real life in the field. Born and raised in Austria, I have worked in marketing and communication in different countries and companies. A few years ago, I settled with my multinational family in the South of France and specialized in sustainable development and tourism.”

What does #blueborder represent for you?

Hélène: A great cross-border journalism project. An opportunity for young photographers and journalists from different countries to work together and discover and document the life, struggles and hopes on Mediterranean islands. And also the will to share the stories they brought back from these territories with a general audience, meaning not only Cafebabel’s readers or photo lovers, but also the inhabitants of the different European neighboroods where the exhibition and workshops will take place.

Barbara: I have crossed the Mediterranean Sea many times and learned a lot about the different cultures around it. It looks like a beautiful blue border when you fly across it, but there is so much more going on there.

Unfortunately we had to officially cancel the vernissage in Marseille. It would be nice however to know what were your expectations about the project - after all, #blueborder is just "raising anchor" online.

Hélène: Obviously to read good stories illustrated with beautiful pictures that inspire me, make me think. I was really looking forward to transforming the Centre Social Bernard Du Bois – a place where people come to seek advice, to bring their kids, to meet, to do activities together, to discuss, etc. - into a nice exhibition hall and seeing the pictures in big format hung on its walls. Unfortunatly it only lasted one day, but it was still nice. And I wanted to provide the inhabitants and youth of Belsunce - the district where the exhibition is happening - with interesting and useful workshops. It won't be the case here as everything was cancelled, but hopefully it will happen in other cities later on.

Barbara:  I’m really excited about this project. I was so much looking forward to meeting the photographers and writers in Marseille, doing the workshops, etc. and really hope that we can catch up with this later or during a follow-up projet. The Corona-Crisis has made borders an even more burning subject we will have to deal with. So, check out the #blueborder website, it's a great journey with insights on people and landscapes along this blue border where cultures meet and have to learn to live together.

Are there any specific societal issues going on in Marseille, first city that hosted #blueborder exhibition?

Hélène: Too many to be sum up in one short answer: housing, poverty, gentrification, inclusion, unemployment, shitty governance... Marseille is a very diverse city with a strong link with the Mediterranean, and I think here we can relate to most of the topics tackled by the Blueborder reports.

Barbara: Marseille is a melting pot, a city turned towards the sea. There are many societal issues linked to migration and employment, like in any other big city. But I feel there is something special about Marseille: it’s a noisy city in constant movement, but the sea seems to cool it all down. It’s a seaside town with a permanent coming and going where everything seems possible.

What are your wishes about the project, as it is gradually unfolding through the published website?

Hélène: I hope people in Marseille and in Europe will be as curious as I am to learn more about the Mediterranean islands and the lives of their inhabitants and check our beautiful website.

Barbara: My wishes for the project would be a large audience of people coming from different cultures around the blue border and an insight on how they feel about this kind of invisible blue border. And it would of course be great if this project was a first step to a series of others dealing with boundaries – physical ones and those in our heads. Because with the ongoing crises, we all will have to deal with the new borders we are (unconsciously) building in our heads. We will have to redefine our personal and collective boundaries and make sure to leave no-one behind.

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#blueborder exhibition in Marseille - cancelled vernissage

(English below)

Il y a deux semaines, le 13 mars, nous aurions dû organiser le vernissage du projet #blueborder à Marseille avec nos journalistes et photographes, pour lancer l'exposition itinérante et le  nouveau site web avec tous les reportages et photos. Malheureusement, comme un premier train de mesures a dû être mis en place par les gouvernements européens en raison de l'épidémie de #coronavirus, l'événement a été officiellement annulé. Le Centre social Bernard Du Bois, qui accueillait l'exposition, a confirmé cette annulation, tout en nous faisant savoir qu'il était possible d'accueillir les visiteurs qui avaient encore envie de voir les photos exposées. Nous sommes maintenant heureux de partager quelques instantanés de cette soirée puisque notre coordinatrice locale Hélène Pillon, ainsi que quelques visiteurs, ont eu la chance d'être là et d'apprécier le travail extraordinaire de nos équipes transfrontalières. La seconde étape de cette exposition itinérante, Palerme, prévu initialement en avril, a également sûe être annulée. Nous nous adapterons à la situation sanitaire pour les événements suivants à Chemnitz (Mai) et Bruxelles (Juin).

N'hésitez pas à apprécier les photos ici ! https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.153913459414774&type=3

***

ENG - A couple of weeks ago, on 13th March, we were supposed to have the #blueborder vernissage in Marseille with our journalists and photographers, launching the itinerant exhibition and the brand new website with all the stories and photos. Unfortunately, as a first package of measures had to be set up by the European governments due to the #coronavirus outbreak, the event was officially cancelled and the participants had to stay at home. The hosting venue Centre Social Bernard Du Bois did confirm that, while letting us know that it was possible to welcome visitors who still felt like having a look at the exhibited photos. We're now happy to share some snapshots of that evening as our local coordinator Hélène Pillon, together with some visitors, had the chance to be there and enjoy the amazing work of our cross-border teams. The second step of the initinerant exhibition, Palermo, originally planned for April, has to be cancelled too. We will adapt to the situation for the organisation of the next events in Chemnitz (Mai) and Bruxelles (June).

Feel free to enjoy the pictures here! https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.153913459414774&type=3

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#MeetTheTeam: Cecilia Butini, journalist

Cecilia Butini is an Italian freelance journalist currently based in Berlin. She has covered migration issues, human rights, politics and the environment for a variety of English-language publications including Foreign Policy, Coda Story, The Guardian and Euronews. She has also worked for AFP and the Italian newspaper La Stampa, and has collaborated with PBS Frontline on a cross-border documentary production. She is passionate about showing the human angle of news stories and is a strong believer in the power of multimedia storytelling to better connect with audiences. She is an alumna of Columbia Journalism School in New York.

What does #blueborder represent for you?

#blueborder is a great idea to bring together stories about different places that people wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to see and and think about. At this time of great talking about the future of Europe, I find it crucial for media makers to dig deeper into issues and places that show what it’s really like to live in Europe – not only in big cities but at the borders, too.

What were your expectations before starting the project?

I expected that we would be able to find local stories with a universal meaning, and we did, which was great.

In the last years, Cafébabel has promoted different cross-border editorial projects: journalists and photographers coming from diverse countries to work and collaborate together. Have you ever experienced this professional method before or did #blueborder give you the first chance to do so? How was, overall, your cooperative undertaking?

I did work in international reporting teams before. The most exciting part is having the chance to share skills and knowledge with other media makers who may previously have had very different experiences. Travelling in a team and organizing the logistics is also an important career-building moment for young journalists, and it’s great to share the experience with like-minded people. It helps cement your vision and soothes the uncertainty and loneliness of working alone.

What are your wishes about your project, as it gradually unfolds and will soon see the light?

I would love to be able to participate in discussions and conversations with fellow reporters and photographers, and to build a network that is going to last. I also hope for our conversations to reach beyond our professional circle and include those who live in the places we reported from.

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#MeetTheTeam: Ksenia Les, photographer

Ksenia Les is a Russian documentary photographer and storyteller. Having moved to Germany, she has had the opportunity to see her former home and its people’s mentality from a different perspective. She mainly works on stories about socio-political issues in Eastern European countries. She also focuses on topics concerning identity transformation. Her work has been published in The Washington Post, NZZ, News Deeply, Taz, Spiegel online and others. https://www.kseniales.com/

What does #blueborder represent for you?

Coming from Russia myself, the word “border” has a special meaning for me. The blueborder reminds me that although Europe is kind of united and free, there are still borders in the minds of people.

What were your expectations before starting the project?

I never worked in Sicily and I was excited to question the stereotypes from within, to look on the topic of mafia from the perspective of local journalists who put themselves in dangerous situations for very little money just to tell their truth.

In the last years, Cafébabel has promoted different cross-border editorial projects: journalists and photographers coming from diverse countries to work and collaborate together. Have you ever experienced this professional method before or did #blueborder give you the first chance to do so? How was, overall, your cooperative undertaking?

I already have experience in a few other cross-border projects in Europe, but now I was in a new role - I was the one who didn’t speak the local language. So, I completely relied on my partner Cecilia and she did an extremely good job. Finally we got access to a very complicated topic!  

What are your wishes about your project, as it gradually unfolds and will soon see the light?

I am curious to see how all the projects will complete the puzzle and provide together a bigger picture of struggles and joys of the Mediterranean islands.

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#MeetTheTeam: Maria Jou Sol, photographer

Maria Jou Sol studied Image and Sound in Barcelona and graduated in documentary photography. Using photography as a form of self-expression and a tool for social transformation, her projects always focus on people and the human condition. Maria Jou is concerned with photographing everyday life, inspired by the ‘moments’ that can be captured amidst oblivion. http://www.mariajousol.com/

What does #blueborder represent for you?

For me it has been an opportunity to approach other realities and being able to know and give voice to different stories. It was a breath of fresh air, a new way of working that I did not know and that made me learn a lot. It also reminded me that as a society we still have a lot to do for being sure that all the fundamental values of the EU are fulfilled.

What were your expectations before starting the project?

I was curious to see what we would bring home, since most of the production we had to do,  it needed to be done once we were there. After a few days on the island, we felt at home. We went from knowing nothing and nobody to finding everyone everywhere. The truth is that Malta was a place that it didn't really attract my attention, but now we are planning to go back and continue working on the project with Eva. It ended up being home and we felt very welcomed and cared by all the people we met.

In the last years, Cafébabel has promoted different cross-border editorial projects: journalists and photographers coming from diverse countries to work and collaborate together. Have you ever experienced this professional method before or did #blueborder give you the first chance to do so? How was, overall, your cooperative undertaking?

It has been the first time that I’ve done a project like this, I find it a grateful way to work, both journalistically and photographically. Sending two people who don't know each other to a place that they are unfamiliar with to investigate a topic which they have to find yet, has been very enriching. In our case, the theme we were going to do was quite a taboo on the island and it has been a challenge to do so. Working with Eva has been very easy and we have understood each other very well, we worked hard and also we laughed above all. I’m really grateful to have had this opportunity and to have been able to experience photography in this way.

What are your wishes about your project, as it gradually unfolds and will soon see the light?

I'm excited to see how the five projects will fit together and which image we’ll have created collectively over the five islands in the Mediterranean. I hope our work can help to break taboos and raise awareness about the rights of reproduction and women’s rights in Malta and over the world.

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“You are not the story.” What I learned while reporting on intimidation against journalists in Sicily  - by Cecilia Butini

We flew into Palermo on a windy Monday afternoon in December, ready for four days of almost non-stop driving, reporting, photographing on all three sides of Sicily. It felt like a challenge from the outset to be able to come home with a truthful portrait of the five people we intended to profile in so little time, with such long distances to cover. 

Though I had done a lot of homework on our topic before setting off for Sicily, including phone interviews with all our characters, I thought that the best way to return the reader a striking sense of their stories was to immerse ourselves in their environment. So when our first interviewee, journalist Salvo Palazzolo, suggested that we drove together to the mafia-ridden neighborhood outside of Palermo where he had been reporting, I saw a great opportunity coming.

We drove together (or better, Salvo drove our rental car, waving off my concerns about him not being insured with it) up the hills of the Passo di Rigano neighborhood while he told us the story of his articles, the mobsters he spoke to, and the consequences his journalism had on his personal life. 

Passo di Rigano doesn’t look much different from other neighborhoods I have seen at the periphery of mediterranean cities, and I am sure I wouldn’t have gotten any deeper impression of it had I gone there by myself. But being there with a journalist whose beat is to walk those streets and find stories, it really drives home the significance of the place. In our case, we started understanding how the Sicilian mafia is able to leave its ugly footprint on entire swaths of cities and neighborhoods. The tens upon tens of illegally-built villas on the side of a hill overlooking Palermo are a testament to that, together with the shops kept by mafia men to conceal illegal activities.

When I first started researching the topic of threatened journalists in Italy, one of the things that struck me the most was the story of Giovanni Spampinato, a 26-year-old Sicilian reporter who was killed by mobsters affiliated with the Cosa Nostra organization in 1972. His brother Alberto went on to found one of Italy’s most famous press freedom organizations, and conversations I had with him convinced me that it was worth following this thread and see what this story looked like today, in 2020.

                               Cecilia seen through Ksenia’s lenses

I thought about this as we drove through the Sicilian countryside, going from Palermo to Catania, and then on to Modica and Marsala. I felt that the greatest challenge for us was to explain the gravitas of the issue without being sensational, and to describe all the nuances at play within the limits of a 1000-word story. Intimidation against journalists can be subtle and insidious, and it was our job not to let any detail fall through the cracks, I thought.

It is in this spirit that we decided to pay a visit to a country house belonging to the family of Paolo Borrometi, a Modica-born journalist who became the symbol of local reporters’ struggles with intimidation in Sicily and in all of Italy. In that country house on the outskirts of Modica, Borrometi was brutally beaten by mobsters in 2014, less than a year before it was decided that it was too dangerous for him to live in Sicily and his news agency transferred him to Rome. Though we did not meet Paolo in person, we thought that taking our audience on a visual journey through his story would be key to understanding it. For us to spend time there and in other places where Paolo had reported was crucial to be able to write about him in a deeper, more informed way.

Through this all I understood that, as a journalist covering human stories with a broad or even global reach, you always need to remember that you are not the story. You might feel close to it – as a reporter covering intimidation against reporters, that does hit close to home. But that shouldn’t make you look at the people that are letting you into their lives any differently. It is, primarily and crucially, about them.

Driving around a lot and reporting under time constraints is very tiring but also exhilarating. And if arriving at an Airbnb late at night to find it had no heating cannot exactly be counted as a fun experience, I kept my mind focused on the story, and it helped. To be trusted to tell people’s stories of hardship and difficulty is a massive responsibility that a reporter can only learn to handle with time and through important experience. This for me was one of those. 

PS – When we pitched this story for the Blueborder project, our editor-in-chief was concerned that we might find ourselves in unsafe situations. That didn’t happen, but we did almost crash our car once when another driver merged into the highway at an unbelievably slow speed. Anyway, we lived to tell the story.

Photos credits: Ksenia Les

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#MeetTheTeam: Eva Hoffmann, journalist

Eva Hoffmann strives to work outside her comfort zone, questioning power structures, portraying people at the margins of society and following the political movements of our times. After studying media sciences and anthropology, she now prefers to work on long story formats for German newspapers and magazines such as fluter, DUMMY Magazin and Süddeutsche Zeitung. https://www.torial.com/eva.hoffmann

What does #blueborder represent for you?

To me, #blueborder offers an approach towards the ambiguity of European values as promoted by the European Union versus the social constraint marginalised groups face at the very same time on the same territory that claims to be the peak of humanity. Looking at the margins of this continent in our research also meant looking at the margins of society itself.

What were your expectations before starting the project?

I tried not to expect too much from this research in advance in order to keep my eyes and ears open for surprises and this is what happened to Maria and me. Since we were able to stay on the island for two weeks, we would let ourselves be carried by the unique pace of time in Malta, staying spontaneous and meeting new people every day. 

In the last years, Cafébabel has promoted different cross-border editorial projects: journalists and photographers coming from diverse countries to work and collaborate together. Have you ever experienced this professional method before or did #blueborder give you the first chance to do so? How was, overall, your cooperative undertaking?

It was not my first, but definitely the most intense cross-border cooperation with a photographer abroad. From sharing a single mattress the second night I arrived to brainstorming overnight, Maria and I quickly grew together as a great team and will continue to cooperate in the future. 

What are your wishes about your project, as it gradually unfolds and will soon see the light?

We were covering a very controversial topic that is still a taboo in Malta. Therefore, the outcome of our story might also influence the discourse on the island itself and hopefully push the debate about reproductive rights and women’s rights all over Europe a bit further. Discussing our research in Marseille, Palermo and Chemnitz is a challenge, we are looking forward to.

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Going analogue on Gozo island - by Eva Hoffmann

If you get to meet different people in Malta over the course of a longer research, you will soon discover, that everybody knows everyone – whether they like each other or not. Reporting on the topic of reproductive rights, interview partners often already knew what we were doing on the island before they even met us. The so called “pro-life” movement is just as connected as the activism pro-abortion through personal ties and informal channels. The fastest way to reach out to somebody therefore is not via social media or mail, but through somebody else who has this person’s number, is her friend, co-worker or worst enemy. 

When we took the ferry towards the north west of the main island in order to speak to a certain Maria Attard, founder of a women’s shelter on the small island of Gozo, we had no phone number, no e-mail address or direct way to contact her in advance. It was our last day of research, but we were determined to find her. After two weeks in Malta, we were also confident, that there might be other ways to find her. 

Above the harbour of Gozo, at the end of a steep and rocky road lies the Debono shelter like a castle from a different time. More than 500 women came here since the 80ies in order to hide their unwanted pregnancies from family and friends on the main island. They would stay in the shelter with Maria Attard, who would look after them until birth and afterwards organise the childrens’ process of adoption. Maria Attard was the last missing piece in our research. When we knocked at the door, nobody opened. The mailbox was full of letters, it seemed, nobody had been emptying it since a longer time. After circling the building for a time, we decided, to actively search for Attard. But where should we start to look for a single person on an island with over 30.000 inhabitants?

If you want to find somebody in a rural area, the best way of transport is hitch hiking. Possibly, the driver knows somebody who knows somebody who might know the person you are looking for. We took a car to Victoria, the capital of Gozo and started walking. In a narrow street, aside the touristic main road, an old woman was knitting a bracelet. Her wrinkled fingers quickly moved in a long-practiced manner. She wanted us to buy one of her traditional art works, we refused, but slowly developed a conversation. On my phone, I showed her a picture of Maria Attard, the person we were looking for. Her face lightened up in recognition, she knew her best friend, she said. Her name was Rita. If we find Rita, we might find Maria as well. She pointed at the end of the narrow street, we should ask for Rita over there.

                                    Eva seen through Maria’s eyes

When we arrived at the corner the old lady was pointing at, an old man came out of a garage he transformed into a small workshop. Mentioning Rita and Maria to him apparently did not ring any bell, but he pointed at another old man passing by. We repeated our small monologue and the man, in a natural manner mentioned, that Rita was his cousin. He pointed at the next corner, where we should ask again for her house.

                 Maria, #TeamMalta photographer, through Eva’s lenses

“What is her nickname?”, the guy in the bakery asked, “in Gozo, we all go by nicknames, since everybody has the same surname.” We did not know. After two hours of walking around, I felt fed up with the situation. It felt like looking for a needle in a haystack. Maria was still hopeful. Knocking on a random door, asking these two names again and again, she finally found a woman who walked us over to Rita’s house. Rita, an old lady with a warm smile, just arrived from shopping. She invited us into her home, a garage that was functioning as a living room and kitchen at the same time, and apologised for not having anything there for lunch. It turned out, Maria Attard, the woman we had been looking for all morning, has been sitting on this kitchen table the very same day, hours before we arrived. She would meet her again in the afternoon and take us with her. Coming with her best friend, we were welcomed in a place, that would have had nothing for us than closed doors and high walls if we did go analogue for this last day of our research.

Photos credits: Maria Jou Sol (cover photo and central photo) & Eva Hoffmann

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#MeetTheTeam: Angelos Christofilopoulos, photographer

Angelos Christofilopoulos was born in Duesseldorf in 1970 and moved to Athens at the age of 25. He studied photography at the FOCUS School of Photography in Athens and has been working since 2000 as a freelance photographer for Greek print media. In 2010, he joined the Athens based Photo Agency FOSPHOTOS and later co-founded the first English-language non-profit news outlet in Greece, “AthensLive”. https://www.angeloschristofilopoulos.com/

What does #blueborder represent for you?

It’s an important idea to discuss at this moment in Europe’s history. We see countries across the continent closing their borders and an initiative like this counters that trend. It starts a discussion about how we relate to borders. How identity transcends borders and how we can resist being defined by physical divisions.

What were your expectations before starting the project?

My expectations were to create some interesting work and to actually meet people from different countries. The idea of creating dialogue between subjects and journalists across the continent is something that really interests me. I hoped it would lead to lots of stimulating conversations and discussions.

In the last years, Cafébabel has promoted different cross-border editorial projects: journalists and photographers coming from diverse countries to work and collaborate together. Have you ever experienced this professional method before or did #blueborder give you the first chance to do so? How was, overall, your cooperative undertaking?

In Greece, over the last 10 years, I have worked with many journalists from different countries; mostly while covering the impact of Greece’s economic crisis and the refugee crisis. Five years ago, I co-founded AthensLive, a non-profit news and storytelling outlet in English for exactly this reason: so we can tell stories, and build a network with other journalists across Europe. The impulse to start AthensLive is similar to that which underpins Cafébabel’s objectives. So, I found the whole process really gratifying. https://athenslive.gr/

What are your wishes about your project, as it gradually unfolds and will soon see the light?

The most important part of the project, I believe, is the exhibition which will take place in different locations around Europe. It’s important because at these events people will actually meet and will have the chance to talk about their experiences and engage with the work together. For me, as a photographer, I find it unsatisfying when my work is confined exclusively to online media. It’s a totally different and more profound experience when photos are printed and become real objects; to be appreciated and interacted with. You can’t really call a photograph a photograph until it is printed. The (increasingly rare) opportunity to share my work in this ideal format is one of the major reasons I was so enthusiastic about this project. I would like to see more projects with such broad ambitions as #blueborder.

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Journeying with North Cyprus’ African Community - by Kajuju Murori

I am seated at a tiny pastry shop in the old city of Nicosia, one of the remaining divided cities in the world.

Outside, the cold Fall breeze sweeps by, leaving whistling sounds behind as it passes through the tight corridors filled with shops displaying latest designs of jewellery, shoes and clothes. I rise up from my seat, one of a set of three at the only table inside the shop just by the door and make a few steps to the exterior seating area.

On my right, Nicosia’s Ledra street crossing point is just a stone throw away. I refer to a mental image and compare it with every female crossing the border from the Greek side (Cyprus) to the Turkish side- Turkish Republic of North Cyprus (TRNC). I don’t see her.

My phone chimes. She is a few meters from the crossing, her message reads. I head back and order a cup of capuccino.

My partner in reporting, Anne Ackermann, is coming today from Germany for a weekend filled with work and hopefully some time to get to know each other. It is our first meeting. I am nervous, but also very excited. What if we don’t click? How will we survive the weekend together, leave alone work? But I am reassured because from our video conversations earlier in the month, we had a connection, which I hope still lingers.

When I next walk out, I see her: a lady of medium height, with kind eyes. Our eyes meet, and we recognize each other. Smiling, we exchange our pleasantries like we have known each other before today. We rush into the coffee shop- in the warmth. A little catch-up over hot drinks and we are ready to leave for Kyrenia- a cobblestoned old town wedged between the mountain ranges and the Mediterranean Sea. It is a perfect destination to soak up some rays in summer- but now though still warm; the cold breeze is blowing the sun rays and warmth away into the winter.

We catch the last shared taxi van (Dolmuş) a few minutes to seven. Classic Turkish music soothingly plays in the background as the driver manoeuvres through the city centre.

As soon as Anne settles down, she instinctively reaches out for her camera and starts shooting away. First, she is attracted by the two red flags hanging too close to each other on the windscreen as if they are Siamese twins. Generally, you will not find a Turkish Republic of North Cyprus flag hanging without the Turkish flag close by. Then, I feel a third eye looking from my back, and sure enough, it’s Anne’s Camera. And she keeps clicking away later into the night as we enjoy a Mediterranean vegetarian salad in Kyrenia.

                                     Kajuju seen through Anne’s lenses

Getting Dirty

There is no better way of capturing stories than immersing oneself in the environment of your protagonists. Luckily, we have identified a couple of young people on the island to do exactly that.

As earlier planned, we are in the city centre to meet our first contact, a tall young man from Congo with cornrow hair style.  Once we get to our meeting point, we alert him. He is offline. We start to panic. Since neither Anne nor I have a local sim card, we rely on WI- FI at restaurants to communicate with our contacts. We are in luck; I connect to a WI- FI from a nearby eatery I had visited several weeks earlier. We are hopeful Okito will be there in a few minutes as he had said when he finally came online. Five minutes turn to ten, then fifteen, and then we call again.

The morning sun is hot and the heavy jackets that kept us warm an hour earlier, now feel like heavy loads we cannot dispose of. He promises he will be with us in 10 minutes. So instead of getting a coffee, we stand in the sun hopeful. Anne’s eye for photography identifies a perfect location for more photos and this keeps us busy for a few more minutes. Thirty minutes later, Okito is a no-show.

Then we recall that he had dropped a pin location to his apartment in our earlier messages. It is just a few minutes’ walk. We set off hoping he does not miss us, should he come. We locate the apartment and after few deliberations we agree to knock on one door on the floor.

Muffled voices reach us by the door, we are glad there is someone behind the wall. We knock and wait.

A man’s voice asks to identity ourselves from the other side of the door. We look at each other inquisitively and we do as directed. The door opens slightly. A tall man hovers over us. He recognizes me and after Anne explains the purpose of our visit in French, they are more than excited to welcome us- we speak their language after all.

We sit by the door and though nervous, we soon settle down in the sitting room adjoining the open concept living room and kitchen. Two other men and a young lady join us in the living room with a large window overlooking the street below and the town.

A discussion here and there and we are family. One of the young men is sitting on the rail in the balconette. That would make a perfect shot.

Our friendly hosts contacts Okito on our behalf and he says he would be there shortly. It takes almost an hour before he and his friend show up. All along, the two were in Nicosia running errands as we stood in the scorching sun waiting- but patience pays. Even though we are more than 3 hours behind our schedule, we are satisfied. We not only get Okito to tell his story, but his friends corroborate his experience by sharing anecdotes of their own lives. What a morning!

When we are done, we take a walk to the harbor through the back routes. Freddie, one of the acquaintances- now friend, is visiting from Congo. He has a way to connect with people and animals. As we walk in the streets, a cat passes by and he squats and starts to caress it.

At the harbor, Okito serenades us with a Lingala song while strumming his guitar skillfully. This guitar has its own story. It almost got him deported, a story for another day.  But today, his melodious voice is carried across the harbor by the waves and soon, a couple of people join our small crowd to enjoy the African music, as Anne does her best to capture every worthwhile moment.

The usually blue Mediterranean is now dark and grey. Waves and sea foam rush to the shore splashing water on the cemented foot path.

Once Okito and his entourage leave us by the shore to explore the touristic area, we stroll enjoying the cold breeze and the magnificent waves. Suddenly, we are caught up in the splash. The camera and our phones are soaked. Nervous, we rummage for any dry cloth in our handbags and scuffle out of the harbor in search of heat to dry the gadgets hoping they can be salvaged.

After confirming and reconfirming that none of the gadgets has suffered major issues, we agree we are starved. A bowl of well-prepared veggies with halloumi cheese and hot drinks, and we are ready for the next assignment.

Weaving in

When you are on a deadline and on borrowed time, you have to sermon all the strength you got. Anne and I had to plan our schedules in a way we met our participants in their usual environments where they are not only familiar with but also comfortable.

One afternoon we meet one of our participants. She is hairdressing her client. We try our best not to distract her from her business. Weaving hair requires unimaginable strength and creativity to intertwine hair strands – often with other artificial hair- to create beautiful styles that suits one’s facial features. It is fascinating to watch as she weaves in the artificial hair skillfully as she narrates her story.

What interlinks the hopes and trials of the African community on the island is meeting people who have had challenging experiences on the island including low pay for so much work, mistreatment, sexual harassment as well as neglect by family members back at home. What do you offer broken people who are feeling stuck in the inside as well as outside? We give them a voice.

A voice to share their innermost fears, some of which they cannot share with anyone else. This gives some an opportunity to release anger, and accept a situation as it is while they hope for a better future, if not plan for it. It resonates with what we had experienced earlier at Okito’s house a day earlier. We had visited them to drop some paperwork after the interview when we found them transforming the living area into a make-shift church. The group together with a few more others were congregating to share in the Word of God. Our hosts were now ministering to other young people who had now changed into their best dresses for the event. Our hosts told us they met often to share and support each other.

With the flooding of the African immigrants on the Island, churches have been sprouting constantly to march the growing numbers. When we attend the Sunday mass at a university, it is praise and worship time. Dressed in their Sunday bests adorning warmer clothes in the chilly morning, a choir accompanied by instruments played by talented students, voices are lifted up to the Lord. We join in the worship, and for a while, the world is perfect- free from pain and struggles. 

In addition to meeting and interacting with our participants, we were lucky to sample some African delicacies too. These gifts reminded Anne and I of the welcoming nature of Africans back at home. It created a longing for more home-made foods. But luck was on our side, we all had a few weeks on the African continent after our assignment in North Cyprus.

As I hugged Anne goodbye on a drizzling morning at the bus stop, I felt I was saying goodbye to a friend. A friend I had only met a few days earlier and became friends fast. The previous night ‘gals’ had met for dinner to meet and greet as well as kiss our goodbyes for the year.

Photos credits: Anne Ackermann

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#MeetTheTeam: Alex King, journalist

Alex King is a British journalist and documentary filmmaker based in Athens who focuses on activism, human rights and youth culture. He is currently editing a feature documentary on Indian bodybuilding called Tight and developing a long term project on oil extraction, environmental contamination and climate activism in Greek regions and around the Balkans. https://www.alexkingjournalist.com/team

What does #blueborder represent for you?

For me, it’s a chance to explore identity and belonging for a generation of young Europeans. We were looking for common threads between youth on islands across the Mediterranean but for me, being from London, a whole world away from this area, I was also interested to see if there was anything common with the ideas about European identity I had grown up with.

What were your expectations before starting the project?

I didn’t have enormous expectations. Despite living and working in Greece for nearly three years, both Crete and the topic of shepherdry that we were exploring were little-known to me. It was a learning experience from start to finish and at many times we were swept along by events unfolding around us — and despite the copious amounts of raki (a local spirit) foisted upon us by everyone we spoke to, I tried to do my best to take it all in and capture the essence of it on the page.

In the last years, Cafébabel has promoted different cross-border editorial projects: journalists and photographers coming from diverse countries to work and collaborate together. Have you ever experienced this professional method before or did #blueborder give you the first chance to do so? How was, overall, your cooperative undertaking?

My focus has been Greece for the past few years but I have travelled extensively around Europe to work and report. During that time, I have seen firsthand how Europe’s response to the global recession, refugee crisis and Brexit has exposed the limits of understanding, empathy and meaningful dialogue across the continent — with much of this both explained and reflected by shortcomings in Europe’s media. I believe in the European project but this is under threat without a media capable of performing the vital role of fostering greater connectivity and understanding of the (often global) dynamics that impact all of us. The transcontinental ambitions of Cafébabel are really inspiring and it’s a project that I feel aims to address the shortcomings of mainstream media by bringing together diverse teams of journalists to take a detailed look at issues which are often ignored, such as identity and belonging.

What are your wishes about your project, as it gradually unfolds and will soon see the light?

I hope the stories collected as part of #blueborder support this wider mission to foster discussion, understanding and empathy across the continent. If we want things to change, we need to start telling better stories. I think this project is a valuable contribution to that endeavour and I’m excited to be a part of the ongoing conversations that hopefully come out of it.

Alex wrote also a preview of the story he and Angelos Christofilopoulos have been working on for the last months. Have a read here!

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Into the Cretan labyrinth - by Alex King

It is a bit of a cliché that things move at their own pace and in their own mysterious ways on the Greek islands. But this story on Crete served to prove many of the old clichés correct.

After submitting a wide range of stories with an obvious link back to migration and borders, the #blueborder editor Prune Antoine picked one about young Cretans who are eager to leave school at the earliest opportunity and start working with their families to raise flocks of sheep. It was a story we had heard second-hand many times over, but once the story was accepted, we actually had to find these people. Both I and Angelos Christofilopoulos have worked in Greece for years — I since 2017 and he since the mid-90s. But experts on Crete we are not.

We had both only been to Crete once each; me with my Ukrainian girlfriend for a few days at the end of summer and Angelos many years back — an experience which time and alcohol had all but erased from his memory (but we’ll come back to that story). So, we both set out on our own lines of investigation to find young shepherds who represented the phenomenon we had to document. We both spoke to all of our Cretan friends, emailed academics who had studied agricultural life on Crete, other journalists and just about any other lead we could think about.

                                  Alex seen through Angelos’ lenses

Angelos found an old anthropologist who had studied the lives of Cretan shepherd for decades. We spoke on the phone for a while and he illuminated the pattern of life there: tradition, land disputes, vendettas, village celebrations, and the like. We asked if he could put us in touch with any of the people he had studied, so we could speak to them and find the characters to bring our article to life. He said he would think about it but that was the last time he would ever answer the phone to us again — repeated phonecalls from Athens and Crete with nothing more than a dial tone.

As the date for our trip grew closer, we were getting worried that we still hadn’t any got solid leads for our story. There were a few friends of friends who knew people and the like, but nothing solid — even when we rolled off the ferry in Heraklion, early in the morning on our first day in Crete. Our most promising lead came through a very unorthodox route. 25 years ago, when Angelos was still living in Germany, his girlfriend at the time had a young sister called Silvie. Silvie was seeing a Cretan guy called Spyros, who invited Angelos to a party on Crete in his village back int 2003.

Today, Angelos is a model of sobriety and professionalism. But back then, in his wild youth, things were very different. Much alcohol was consumed and Angelos has little recollection of the party — his only previous trip to Crete before our story was commissioned.

Apparently, Spyros’ uncle Pavlis remembered Angelos and was willing to help with the story, but Angelos had absolutely no memory of the meeting whatsoever. Still, it was our best and only lead at the time, so we agreed to meet in his village, in the highlands of central Crete just after dawn. Despite this very tenuous connection, Spyros’ uncle was the man who gave us our story. With flowing white hair, he was an immensely warm old man with incredible energy, who shouted into his phone every time he received a call.

We talked about what we needed over coffee in his kitchen, then jumped in the back of his enormous 4x4 and went driving through the mountains in search of young shepherds we could talk to. After meeting a shepherd tending his flock high in the clouds who was much too old for our story and Pavlis stopping along the way for a number of errands — exchanging cheese and milk for potatoes and drinking a few glasses of raki (the local spirit) with friends — eventually we were introduced to Kosti; the bright-eyed young shepherd who would become the heart and soul of our story.

So it is sometimes with journalism, despite all the diligent planning and research, sometimes you just have to rely on luck — and long-passed drunken encounters.

Photos credits: Angelos Christofilopoulos

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Quelque chose sort de l'eau : des nouvelles du site et des expositions de #blueborder !

Mars est synonyme de printemps, les fleurs s'épanouissent et le soleil apparaît plus souvent. De plus, le printemps nous apportera une raison supplémentaire de sourire : Le site web du projet #blueborder va être lancé ! Alors que nous travaillons sur les derniers détails, nous sommes également heureux d'annoncer qu'en plus du site web, une série d'événements hors ligne/live verront le jour. Des lieux sympas dans trois villes d'Europe accueilleront nos expositions, panels et discussions, ateliers et activités.

Le premier événement officiel aura lieu en France, à Marseille, le vendredi 13 mars 2020 à 18h00. Les espaces sont mis à disposition par Coco Velten et le Centre social CCO Bernard Du Bois.

Nous invitons les habitants, les jeunes et tous ceux qui pourraient être intéressés à se joindre à nous le vendredi 13 mars ! Nous aurons des conversations intéressantes et inspirantes au Coco Velten avec Sébastien Vannier et Prune Antoine (directeur et rédacteur en chef), Esra Kücük (responsable de la Fondation culturelle Allianz, à confirmer), notre coordinatrice locale Hélène Pillon ainsi que certains de nos journalistes et photographes.

Suite aux conversations, il faudra encore patienter avant de rentrer à la maison! Nous guiderons le public jusqu'au Centre social Bernard Du Bois, situé à côté. Là, chacun pourra découvrir la belle exposition présentant les photos de chacun des 5 projets menés par nos équipes en Corse, en Sicile, à Malte, en Crète et à Chypre. Les photographes et journalistes auront l'occasion de présenter leurs reportages et leurs photos, qui seront disponibles jusqu'au 3 avril.

Enfin, notre photographe Anne Ackermann, en présence d’Hélène Pillon et Barbara Braun comme animatrices, animera un atelier avec quelques jeunes locaux (nous vous communiquerons bientôt la date exacte, soit le 12 ou 13 mars).

En avril, alors que le temps se réchauffe, pourquoi ne pas faire un saut plus loin dans le Sud ? Avec notre coordinateur local Tullio Filippone et la photographe Maria Jou Sol, nous organiserons des débats et des ateliers ainsi que notre exposition itinérante à Palerme (Sicile, Italie) au Laboratorio Zen Insieme, dans le quartier Zen. La prochaine étape aura lieu le 15 mai en Allemagne, précisément à la Arthur - Kulturhaus de Chemnitz, où notre coordinateur local René Szymanski et la photographe Ksenia Les nous soutiendront dans le même format. Nous partagerons d'ici peu plus d'informations sur ces deux derniers événements.

Si vous vous demandez encore de quoi il s'agit, cliquez sur ce lien ou vérifiez qui est derrière le projet et... plongez !

#blueborder est un projet conçu par Cafébabel Berlin et soutenu par Babel International, Allianz Kulturstiftung et l'Office franco-allemand de la jeunesse.

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Something is popping out of the water: news about #blueborder website & exhibitions!

March is synonym of spring, flowers blossom and the sun peeps out more often. As well, spring will bring us another reason to smile: #blueborder website is going to be launched! While we’re working on the final touches and details, we’re also happy to announce that, alongside the website, a series of offline/live events will see the light, too. Some cool venues in three cities spread out in Europe will host our exhibitions, panels and discussions, workshops and activities.

The first official event will take place in France, in Marseille, on Friday, 13th March 2020 at 6 pm. The spaces and locations will be offered by Coco Velten and the Centre Social CCO Bernard Du Bois. 

We would like to invite locals, the youth and anyone else who might be intrigued to join us on Friday 13th March! We will have interesting and inspiring conversations at Coco Velten with Sébastien Vannier and Prune Antoine (director and editor-in-chief), Esra Kücük (Head of Allianz Cultural Foundation, tbc), our local coordinator Hélène Pillon as well as some of our journalists and photographers.

Straight afterwards, not time to go back home yet! In fact, we will guide the public to the adjacent Centre Social Bernard Du Bois. There, everyone will have a look at the beautiful exhibition showcasing the photos of each of the 5 projects carried out by our teams in Corsica, Sicily, Malta, Crete and Cyprus. Indeed, all the photographers and journalists will have the opportunity to introduce their feature reports. The photos will be available until the 3rd of April.

Last but not least, our photographer Anne Ackermann, along with Hélène Pillon and Barbara Braun as facilitators, will carry out a workshop with some local youth (we will soon share the exact date, either 12th or 13th March).

In April, as the weather gets warmer, why not to leap further in the South? Together with our local coordinator Tullio Filippone and photographer Maria Jou Sol, we will host panels and workshops as well as our travelling exhibit in Palermo (Sicily, Italy) at Laboratorio Zen Insieme, in the Zen district. The next step will be on 15th May in Germany, precisely at the Arthur - Kulturhaus in Chemnitz, where our local coordinator René Szymanski and photographer Ksenia Les will support us with the same format. We will be sharing more information about these last two events soon, of course.

If you’re still wondering what #blueborder is about, open this or check out who’s behind the project and… take a dive!

#blueborder is a project conceived by Cafébabel Berlin and supported by Babel International, Allianz Kulturstiftung and the French-German Youth Office

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#MeetTheTeam: Marco Panzetti, photographer

Marco Panzetti is a freelance documentary photographer, multimedia journalist and visual artist whose work focuses on contemporary issues related to social and environmental (in)justice, migration and urban development. He has carried out projects in Europe, Latin America and Asia, working independently, on assignment, and through art residencies. His award-winning work has been published in leading media outlets and exhibited internationally. While photography remains at the core of his practice, he also works with different audiovisual formats to create short documentary films, immersive multimedia & VR pieces and art installations. www.marcopanzetti.com

What does #blueborder represent for you? 

An interesting opportunity to provide a fresh look to Europe, focusing on subjects and perspectives which are not usually covered by mainstream media and are not on the strict news agenda. 

What were your expectations before starting the project?

I was interested in discovering a place I didn’t know (Corsica) and intrigued by working on a subject on which I worked before (independentism) but from a different angle (intersection with feminism).

In the last years, Cafébabel has promoted different cross-border editorial projects: journalists and photographers coming from diverse countries to work and collaborate together. Have you ever experienced this professional method before or did #blueborder give you the first chance to do so? How was, overall, your cooperative undertaking?

I did very few other projects in collaboration with other journalists and/or photographers, since I normally work alone. The difficult part was to define an interesting subject to work on without having deep knowledge of the place where the project would take place. But overall I think we managed to come home with an interesting project.

What are your wishes about your project, as it gradually unfolds and will soon see the light?

I’m excited about the exhibition in Marseille, and I’m looking forward to seeing the other team’s projects. Furthermore, I’m very interested in discovering how all the different projects fit together, the bigger picture.

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#MeetTheTeam: Anne Ackermann, photographer and photojournalist

Anne Ackermann is a documentary photographer and photojournalist based in Germany but working worldwide. She focuses on women’s issues across broad topics like migration and its aftermath, skin bleaching and plastic surgery, environmental disasters and child marriages. She is a grantee of VG Bildkunst Germany and Photoreporter Festival France, a finalist at the International Women Photographers Award Hansel Mieth Preis, and The Jacob Riis Award, and a member of the photo agencies FOCUS and Women Photograph. Her images have been exhibited worldwide, at the New York Photo Festival, Gulf Photo Plus, PhotoGrafia Festival Rome, Angkor Photo Festival, Alliance Francaise Dubai and many others. https://www.anneackermann.com

What does #blueborder represent for you? 

#blueborder for me is a new way of looking at Europe, starting from its periphery, the islands. An island to me is a very two sided experience: on one hand it offers the possibility to realise dreams freely, on the other hand, it holds the experience of isolation. In the story that I worked on with Maureen in Northern Cyprus, both of these emotions played a huge role in the lives of the young Africans that we followed.

What were your expectations before starting the project?

I was happy to be given the opportunity to take a look at Europe through the eyes of the young African diaspora that has emerged in Northern Cyprus. Having worked in Africa extensively, I was very keen on their telling stories. The subject matter and location we worked were new to me and I was excited to explore this part of Europe.

In the last years, Cafébabel has promoted different cross-border editorial projects: journalists and photographers coming from diverse countries to work and collaborate together. Have you ever experienced this professional method before or did #blueborder give you the first chance to do so? How was, overall, your cooperative undertaking? 

This was my first experience in cross border reporting and the cooperation worked very well. Reporting on the African diaspora in Northern Cyprus would not have been possible in the time we had without Maureen’s access to the community. Having lived in Uganda for some years on the other hand helped me to understand her and our protagonists on a different level. We definitely also shared laughters more than once!

What are your wishes about your project, as it gradually unfolds and will soon see the light? 

I hope we can share the work with as many people as possible and also shed a light on some things we learned from our protagonists that were not all that positive. In general I hope we can further instigate cross cultural conversations of all kinds through collaborative storytelling.