DOKUPHOTO to feature Enri Canaj’s Syrian Refugees in Greece

The twelfth edition of DOKUPHOTO will feature the work of photojournalist Enri Canaj. His series documenting the desperation of a migrating group of Syrian people reaching the Greek Coast will be exhibited. Enri Canaj will also give a master class, showing his work and photographic practice.

Syrian Refugees in Greece will open on Thursday, August 06 at 20:00h at the Martys Square in Prizren. The exhibition will run until August 16.

Greece is the entrance point for Syrian refugees trying to escape the brutal civil war in their homeland. Many never complete their trip to Europe but drown in the Mediterranean Sea.

In September 2014, photographer Enri Canaj witnessed a small boat with 49 Syrian refugees crossing the sea borders between Turkey and Greece. The refugees refused help from the Greek coast guard and when their small boat reached an uninhabited island, they disappeared into the morning fog. Canaj went after them and documented the difficult negotiations between the authorities and the refugees. Ultimately, the refugees understood that this deserted place had no food or water to offer them and let the Coast Guard take them to the port in Chios. Canaj followed the refugees back and captured their first days in the small Aegean island. The black and white series of photographs confronts its viewers with feelings of being lost in a foreign country and of not knowing what the future will hold.

ENRI CANAJ is an Albanian photojournalist who migrated with his family to Athens when he was 11 years old. He studied photography at the Leica Academy in Athens. In 2007 he took part in a British Council project on migration, attending a year-long workshop with Magnum photographer Nikos Economopoulos.

Since 2008, Canaj has been a freelance photographer for major publications such as Time Magazine, CNN Photo Blogs, Newsweek, Le monde Diplomatique, Burn Magazine, Foto8 Magazine London, Vice Magazine,Gup Magazine, Feature Shoot, Courrier International. His work has been exhibited at the Cultural Foundation of the National Bank of Greece in Athens, at the Bilgi Santral in Istanbul, the European Parliament in Brussels, the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts, the Athens Photo Festival 2013, New Delhi Photo Festival 2014 and his personal exhibition in State Museum of Contemporary Art Thessaloniki. Enri Canaj has been working in the Balkans, mainly Kosovo, Albania and Greece, focusing on migration and the recent crisis.

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