TIFA 2022 People / Portrait

We Are Here Because You Were There

  • Prize
    Bronze in People/Portrait
  • Photographer
    Andy Barnham
  • Agency / Studio
    Andy Barnham Photography
  • Technical Info
    1/ 200, F4, Iso200, Full Frame Camera
  • Photo Date
    FROM DEC 2021 TO MAR 2022

The project documents the experiences of Afghan interpreters who were resettled to the U.K. through photo portraiture. The portraits have been edited in a manner to help anonymise the interpreters who have been at risk and who, potentially, have family in Afghanistan still under threat. The individual portraits are a composite of up to a dozen frames which have each been blurred or pixelated and then overlaid to present a final portrait. This process can also be seen as inflicting trauma on the portraits, in acknowledgement of their experiences.

Andy Barnham is a photographer, veteran and son of a refugee. Mixed race English/ Chinese Andy was born in Hong Kong and educated in the UK before serving as an officer in the British Army deploying on operational tours to Iraq, Cyprus and Afghanistan where he documented his experiences as a hobbyist photographer. After leaving the British Army Andy turned this passion into a career and become immersed in London’s sartorial scene. For over a decade he photographed the best of British heritage and craft before focusing his observational and inter personal skills on portraiture.