You can see me, but I don’t exist

You can see me, but I don’t exist is a project by Alan Gignoux which pairs photographs of asylum seekers in three UK cities with creative writing written by the people photographed in response to their portraits.  Please visit the main project page for information about the creative development of the work.

Supported by a National Lottery Project Grant the aim from the outset was to create an exhibition that could be made available to libraries in the UK during Refugee Week 2023.  The exhibition-in-a-book concept provided a practical, affordable solution: exhibition-quality prints of the portraits were combined with the creative writing in a binder to which the work could be returned after the exhibition.  The binder also included an exhibition poster, an exhibition introduction page, display suggestions and workshop plans.  In summary, the binder provided complete materials for an exhibition, leaving the libraries with enough flexibility to create displays that were in keeping with their spaces, resources and visitors.

A tabloid-size newspaper version of the exhibition was also created so that participants in the project would have a record of their work.