All photos © Greg Constantine.

For the past six years, photographer Greg Constantine has worked on a long-term project called “Nowhere People.” The project documents the struggles and plight of minority groups around the world who have had their citizenship stripped or denied from them and are stateless. While people can become stateless for any number of reasons, “Nowhere People” focuses on how citizenship is used and manipulated as a tool to exclude people from belonging to mainstream society, mostly because of discrimination. More importantly, the project documents how the denial of this fundamental right to belong impacts the day-to-day lives of individuals, families and entire communities.

The World’s Stateless, an exhibition featuring a large selection of work from “Nowhere People,” is currently on view at the United Nations. From Sept 20th to October 4th, the exhibition (sponsored by the UNHCR, the UN’s refugee organization, and UPS) will stay up at the UN for the the 66th annual session of the UN General Assembly, so that diplomats and delegates can be exposed to the work. It will also be shown at the BBVA Bank Gallery in Madrid (Oct 19-Nov 7) then Royal Albert Hall in London (Nov 14- Dec 7th).  The in a series of books from Constantine’s “Nowhere People” project, Kenya’s Nubians: Then & Now, will be published in October, with the second book Exiled To Nowhere: Burma’s Rohingya published in April 2012.

(more…)

© Ryan Heffernan.

A baby elephant guzzles a bottle of milk while under the care of The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi, Kenya.  The elephants are part of the Orphans Project which tries to rehabilitate and release orphaned elephants into Tsavo National Park. To see more of Heffernan’s work click here.