New Book Explores Refugee Experiences Through Photography and Writing

Co-authored by Professor Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Palestinian poet Dr Yousif M. Qasmiyeh, and Bangladeshi photographer Saiful Huq Omi, the book embraces poetic responses to photographs of Baddawi refugee camp in Lebanon (by members of the Baddawi camp community and Professor Fiddian-Qasmiyeh) and of Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazaar and Dhaka in Bangladesh (by Saiful Huq Omi).  

Published by Broken Sleep Books, the book explores themes of memory, identity, and belonging, offering a reflective exploration of how refugees document emotional landscapes of displacement, including through responses to ‘their own’ experiences as well as the displacement of ‘others’. 

In the postscript, Professor Fiddian-Qasmiyeh and Dr Yousif M. Qasmiyeh discuss the idea of refugees as self-archivists, using creative methods to capture both their own stories and those of other refugees.  

Reflecting the intersecting research projects and approaches that underpin this book - including the Southern Responses to Displacement project (funded by the ERC), Refugee Hosts (funded by the AHRC-ESRC) and the Baddawi Camp Lab (part of the Imagining Futures AHRC Network+ programme) - they also introduce the concept of "co-seeing" and "co-writing" displacements, emphasising the value of collaborative storytelling from a South-South perspective. 

In her endorsement of the book, Professor Tamar Garb writes:  

“This volume is a beautiful experiment in poetic/pictorial juxtaposition.  

“Comprising extended prose poems and short essays alongside assorted photographs – archival, authorial and amateur – it explores the refugee situation as mediated via text and image while positing South/South synergies and connections.  

“Whether recycled from albums or personal archives, or produced on site and location, this collection of extraordinary and ordinary pictures invokes life-worlds and livings that are both precarious and precious.  

“The carefully crafted words that accompany them constitute a suggestive and extended frame for thinking. They are neither prescriptive nor didactic.  

“They hold, like the photographs themselves, an infinite and exquisite set of possibilities.” 

The Southern Eye: Co-Seeing Displacements is available now from Broken Sleep Books. 

More information 

• Visit Professor Fiddian-Qasmiyeh’s Academic Staff Profile  
• Learn more about the Southern Responses to Displacement Project