São Paulo – The exhibition ‘Refugee Childhood’, that was shown at the Immigration Museum, may become a book. It is the desire of the photographer from Ceará, Brazil, Karine Garcêz, the author who is seeking support through crowdfunding. The campaign runs until February 22 through the website Catarse, and proposes the publication of the photo book with text both in English and Portuguese.
Since 2012, Garcêz traveled to Middle East countries such as Palestine. Between 2014 and 2015, she went to Gaza, Beirut, Lebanon, Gaziantep, Turkey, and Yarmouk, Syria. The photographer followed the daily life in refugee camps and her pictures reflect the life of those people, specially children. Her photos were taken when she was with a mission by the Dutch NGO Al Wafaa Campaign.
Garcêz wants to take these pieces of reality to even more people. The photographer is involved in the internationalist struggle for social justice, and is an International Relations student. Hence the idea to make a bilingual photo book in Portuguese and English.
The black and white images intend to intensify the aesthetic expression. The publication will be prefaced by the Brazilian ambassador Celso Amorim, former Foreign Minister and Defense minister. In addition to the documental photographs, the work will be complemented with a text by the author, together with pictures drawn by the Palestinian children. The drawings were gifts the kids gave to the Brazilian, who will publish them also in black and white, inviting the reader to paint them.
The crowdfunding platform acts as an advance purchase of the product. Starting with BRL 55.00 (USD 15.00), the supporter will receive as rewards an autographed book, two customized bookmarks, in addition to having their name listed in the acknowledgment list on the book’s website.
With this initiative, the author hopes to achieve the funding to launch the book. From that value, 50% will be dedicated to print 2,000 copies, and the rest is going for the crowdfunding platform fee and the posting costs.
The book is to be released between March and Abril of 2019, in Fortaleza, Brazil. The photographer is also preparing events in São Paulo and João Pessoa. Garcêz explains that 70% of the book costs is funded by the secretary of culture of the state government of Ceará. This support covers costs such as design, translation and copy-editing, photo manipulation, finalization, layout, production and half of the printing costs.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
