Barcelona
Ciutat Refugi Ajuntament de Barcelona

Portrait of Mailing (representing her concern about his situation), taken by Omo on the Can Basté photography set. Mailing, a Venezuelan teenager, fled from her country with her mother and sister. In Barcelona she is continuing her education at secondary school.

Photograph: Omo / Refugee dreams

Portrait of Osama (representing the joy of a victory), taken by Bruntha on the Can Basté photography set. Osama was born in Bengasi, Libya in 1984. He liked living on the Mediterranean coast. When he was young he used to work as a volunteer lifeguard in the summer. He graduated in Accounting and worked as a marketing technician. He has been in the Scouts International group since he was a teenager, which he loves. He arrived in Barcelona in 2015 for an eye operation after he suffered an accident in his country caused by the armed conflict there. He works sporadically in department stores as a shelf-stacker.

Photograph: Bruntha / Refugee dreams

Portrait of Mailing by Laura Gil, social worker at the Spanish Catholic Migration Commission Association (ACCEM). In the first session of this period we asked the students to write down on a piece of paper their objectives for the course. Mailing wrote “a change of routine” and “to learn new things”.

Photograph: Laura Gil / Refugee dreams

Bruntha loves visiting Barcelona’s tourist spots and photographing them. Here she is taking a photograph of some friends outside Maremàgnum shopping centre in the Old Port with seagulls walking past her.

Photograph: Bruntha / Refugee dreams

A self-portrait of Osama looking at himself in the window of a restaurant in La Barceloneta.

Photograph: Osama / Refugee dreams

Portrait of Mohammed (representing his suffering at being separated from his family), taken by Marina on the Can Basté photography set. Mohammed was born in Somalia in 1988. When he was 2 years old his family decided to emigrate to Saudi Arabia, which is where he grew up and went to school. He worked for a time as an Arabic to Somali translator at the Somalian embassy in Syria. His father and his brother were both killed by a terrorist group. His mother and his other siblings are currently missing somewhere near the Kenyan border after fleeing from the armed conflict. One of his biggest dreams is to become a professional photographer and the best Somalian photographer.

Photograph: Marina / Refugee dreams

Mohammed, a participant in the “Refugee dreams” project, photographs Pieter Hugo’s exhibition on electronic waste in Africa.

Photograph: Héctor Mediavilla / Refugee dreams