Posted by Randi Bjornstad
The New Zone Gallery is host through September of a show of photographs by Jim Lommasson, a freelance photographer from Portland who is a participant in a “photographic storytelling project” that looks at the what refugees of war or genocide choose to take with them when forced to flee their homes.
The overarching project included photographers from 15 countries, representing displaced people from the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and Central America. Lommasson focused on people who escaped to the United States and described his efforts this way:
We often think about war and its aftermath as if there were a clear demarcation between the two. My projects have been driven by a desire to illuminate the darkness and give voice to the voiceless.
I asked participants to let me photograph those few items that they were able to carry with them on their long and dangerous journey to America. I then asked the participants to write directly on the photograph about their object and why that particular item was so important that they chose it above everything else.
Their stories speak to much more than the object. The participants’ additions give voice to the universal plight of all refugees. Ordinary objects become sacred objects. The luminous inner life of these ordinary things is a testament to the unspeakable anguish of a life left forever behind.
Lommasson will give an artist talk about his project at the Emerald Art Center in Springfield at 2 p.m. on Sept 18.
Photography at Oregon’s show of Jim Lommasson’s work
When: Through Sept. 30, 2022
Where: Klausmeier Room in The New Zone Gallery, 110 E. 11th Ave., Eugene
Gallery hours: Noon to 6 p.m. daily
Special event: Artist talk at 2 p.m. on Sept. 18 at the Emerald Art Center, 500 Main St. in Springfield
Information: newzonegallery.org or emeraldartcenter.org
A garment chosen by a survivor of forced displacement as a reminder of talisman of both past and future; photo by Jim Lommasson
