Gillian Allard

Refugee Stories began as a commission for the PhotoEast Festival in 2018, the overarching theme being 'Belonging'.  We liaised with Suffolk Refugee Support and were invited to regularly attend social events and ESOL groups.  By using my pop-up photo-studio I developed a series of portraits alongside the group generously sharing personal stories which they wrote directly onto the artworks bonded to the OSB.   Since then I have worked with Rifaii - a refugee from Syria - and Yana & Soffia - a mother and daughter from Ukraine – to develop this work further.