Photos presented by: Ehsan Hazaveh

My LifeTo Live tells the stories of six workers from refugee backgrounds working in Wellington. The six participants are from a diversity of ethnic groups — from South Sudan, Myanmar, the Assyrian community in Iraq, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Colombia. Despite that diversity their stories have a common thread — love for their original homes; the dangers, hardship and suffering that forced them to leave; their lives in traditionally low paid jobs; their immense contribution to their new home country and their hopes and dreams.

Biography:

An independent Iranian photographer based in Wellington, Ehsan Hazaveh completed his Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from the University of Tehran in 2015 and is currently doing his PhD in Media Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. “My personal experience with marginalised communities in Iran and the personal bond I built with them, motivated me to document their stories, that seldom get heard of in the media, through a photographic process,” says Ehsan. "During that process, I became aware of the immense difficulties these communities had to deal with in their daily lives. As a photographer, I also realised the complexity of conveying their hardships. Thinking about the consequences of misrepresenting them led me to focus on developing humanitarian approaches of photographic storytelling by sharing their activities, emotions and aspirations in an attempt to instigate public action without hurting their pride or exaggerating the truth.” After moving to New Zealand in 2018, Ehsan continued to pursue his interest in representing marginal communities, such as former refugees. Led by his interest in developing representational techniques that empower and give voice to people with a refugee background, Ehsan uses his camera as an enabling agent. “Through photography, I seek to question stereotypes about refugees and thereby encourage a humane response to their plight. My LifeTo Live is an attempt in that direction.”