Laughing Scars – Are we already conditioned to see images of refugees a certain way? How do we perceive smiling refugees? In his series Laughing Scars the photographer Jojo Schulmeister (*1983, Herrenberg) shows excerpts from smiling faces, hands and scars - portraits of refugees on Lesbos.

Jojo Schulmeister visited Lesbos for the first time in 2016 and since then has returned regularly. Early on, he was wondering on how to document refugees. The image of overcrowded refugee boats do not shock us anymore. Even photographs of terrible conditions in refugee camps, such as the one in Camp Moria on Lesbos, no longer frighten us. Jojo Schulmeister began to reduce to small details: hands, a laugh, a scar. The excerpts are free of cultural codes. Often stigmatized and perceived as threatening in Europe, these photographs approach the refugees at eye level. (Text: Carla Peca)

From 30 August to 9 September 2018, Alessa Widmer and Carla Peca were exhibiting photographs from the series Laughing Scars by Jojo Schulmeister at Projektraum 13, Dynamo, Zurich.  

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Tages-Anzeiger, Wednesday, August 29, 2018