tirsdag 11. desember 2007

mandag 3. desember 2007

Kamar - just another child with stomach pain


4 years ago he saw his uncle being shot by Israelian soldiers. His father has deep worries for Kamars psychological development.

søndag 2. desember 2007

Their son was shot by Israelian soldiers



The 3th of July a fifteen year old boy, Ahmid, was shot on his way home from the store. 200 meters from his home, 30 bullets hit his body. According to reports.

- The policew told me he was playing with a plastic gun and they felt threatened, says his father and twins his fingers.

There has been five months since he lost his son. He has always feared soldiers, but never imagined that his son would be shot at 2 pm in the day.

- He passed by my shop and I gave him some money to buy some sweets for his sisters.
Few minutes later he was dead, says his father.

Later neigbhour has told that there were several soldiers in a house nearby Ahmids family in the days before he was shot.

- Why would they kill your son?
- They kill our childrean so that we shall feel fear. They are demonstrating their power. Ahmid was not a threat to them, he was a child. I never saw him with a plastic gun, they are lying.They shoot children at every age. Dont you know?

lørdag 1. desember 2007

Jerusalem soundslide



I am back in Hebron after spending three days in Jerusalem.
Doing street photography in Via Dolorosa was something else, you cannot walk those streets without feeling weird, warm, cold and comforted. At least, I cant.
Took a photo of a girl and her grandfather, got into conversation and was invited in for coffee by the girls father Kahlid. The arab is living with his african wife in two rooms, "Life is a struggle in Jerusalem", they said and invited me for dinner. Many relatives came in to say hello, warning the family there was an earthshake coming up...I was more prepared for bomb threaths....but anyhow, I left them and didnt have the chanse to go back...and didnt notice the earth shake..
Jerusalem is a complex scene. I tried to move around in the jewish area, but to get a cab to move from a jewish to an arab area was quite a challenge. I had to talk my driver "Joseph",an arab jew (one of the few) to set me of in the Palestinean area, which is one of the better, where the diplomats live.
"WHY do you stay there????" he said and offered to put me off at a lightcross somewhere "close".
"Joseph, are you going to leave a woman in the street because you dont like the idea of going in there?"I asked and tried to smile him into it. So he drove me"Inggøbørsjg, I havent been here for 15 years", he said when he left me off outside my house. Joseph felt fear. He has Isrealian sign on his car.The Palestinians I talked about afterwords, claimed that noone would have thrown stones at his car, even though he had passed there 10 thousand times. But you never know. And thats what its all about. You never know...(A jew told me of his mothers car that was ruined by stones. but that was from the jewish orthodox, she thinks it was because her hair wasnt covered, on a Saturday, Sabbat. The orthodox wont speek to or look at another seculariced jew)
I was desperately looking for Israelians that would give me a more moderate view on Palestinans and fortunately, at the end, Ifound a few. They were quite radical , strong left politically engaged and I made an interview with a young brave Israelian , aged 21. I hope he will use his intellect and sharpness to more than me. I will put his voice to my snapshots from Jerusalem. Jossi is now living in Berlin and studies there. He cannt appreciate life in Israel- because of all the Injustice he claims is taking place. Jossi more than once has gone to the Westbank to demonstrate with the Palestinians. He knows that Israelans has a harder time pointing their guns against Palestinians if he is in the demonstrations. He is not allowed to go to the Westbank by the Israelian but has several times made his way through the checkpoints. Many of his Palestinian friends has been murdered in their political engagement, but Yossi doesnt fear for his life; As an ISraeli citizents I am protected by Democratic rules and by blood costs them much more than that from a Palestinian. The Palestinians are under the Military law and have no rights what so ever. This is nothing else than apartheid, says Jossi

SE SOUNDSLIDE

tirsdag 27. november 2007


Oppslag utenriks, Adresseavisen

Denne nibarnsfaren er imot islamistenes demonstrasjon, men forstår desperasjonen i sitt folk. Selv ble han slått og arrestert foran øynene på sine ni barn. Hans tre år gamle sønn verken spiste eller snakket de dagene hans far satt i fengsel. Faren frykter at Israel skaper sine egne martyrer og jobber bevisst med å lære sine barn anti-voldelige holdninger. http://www.adressa.no/nyheter/utenriks/article986458.ece


Bildet er fra en mor som har fått huset sitt ødelagt syv ganger. Hun prøver å beskytte barna sine i en situasjon som er svært vanskelig. De bor i et lite murhus med små husdyr, mellom to israelske settlere. Flere ganger har israelere rettet våpen mot de elleve barna hennes.

Forbehold

En er drept og det meldes om 20-50 sårede. Noen frykter dette vekker et stygt opprør fra Hamas side. Det forventes reaksjoner fra familiene til de drepte under begravelsen, og begravelsen vil finne sted så tidlig som mulig, etter muslimsk tradisjon og tro. Vi holder lav profil imorgen, så jeg får dessverre ikke besøkt familier imorgen.

Trygg, men uroligheter i Hebron

Kl 16:Hvis dere hoerer nyheter fra Hebron, saa skjer det naa bevegelser i sentrum som er nye for byen. Den nye situasjonen er at palestinsk militaere har vaapen som de retter mot sine egne, israelsk politi har gitt dem tillatelse til aa bruke vaapen - for aa ungga demonstrasjonen som det islamske frigjoeringsparti har varslet. Det er skudd i sentrum og folk her reagerer svaert avmaalt og rolig, men det er trist og nytt at skuddvekslingen skjer i H1 delen av byen, midt paa dagen. Vi er trygge i kontoret et godt stykke unna, saa det er ingen grunn til bekymring! Dette gaar utover aktivistene som er midt i byen. De vil demonstrere mot Annapolis
konferansen som de mener vil opgi for mange palestinske krav. Rapportene sier at det er skudd fra palestinske side, men at demonstrantene bare har svart med steiner. Noen skal vaere skadet. Vi spiste lunsj der halvtimen foer skuddene startet. Ting skjer fort her.
Jeg har arbeidet ute paa landet idag og haaper aa jobbe videre i morgen som normalt.
Drar til Jerusalem torsdag.

mandag 26. november 2007

The 19 year-old student lives between tents in Wad Al Amaire, a small Palestinian community of farmers south of Hebron. She is the only one in her community that is a University student. The Israelian army has cut their water and destroied her families house seven times. They also buildt a stonewall around the little base of tents and small houses and prohibited them to go outside their area. (1m2). They want her family to move. - I have no life. But I try to give my mother some source of joy. I live in prison. I want to be free. (Ingeborg: I hope to go to her house again tomorrow, but it can be too dangerous to go to the field. Some weeks ago it was known that some Israelian had bought a house in the old-city that used to be Palestinian. The palestinians now claims that the house is stolen and has announced a demonstratioin. There is fear of clashes tomorrow between the groups....)


The mother is 33 year-old, expecting her fifth child in January. Her children are playing on what was left by the Israelian soldiers. It used to be her house.








The young boy Josef is still easily frightened and wets his pants every time he sees a soldier. MSF has helped him with pshycotherapy and through their drawings and playing together he is doing better. His house was destroyed, but used to be on the ground behind him, between the tentsw you can see in the back. With help from an Non Governal Organisation his mother could build a new house. His father is out of work since the Israelis closed the access to Israel for most Palestinians on the West Bank.


What word could exist to describe the feeling you get when you make a bizarre safari in peoples tragedies? I don’t know. We are all tired of it. Listening about the suicide – bombers on buses in Tel aviv. Listening about peace negotiations that don´t lead anywhere. The Annapolis conference coming up this week is another political meeting that rises the threats and fear here in the west –banc. The security precautions here within the MSF (Doctors without borders) is also stronger.
If we are tired, imagine how it is for the people in the Middle East. For the girl that has to cross 4 checkpoints every day just to be able to go to school. For the 19 year-old that has experienced her house to be destroyed seven times with bulldozers in the middle of the night. She was draged out of her sleep and pointed at with a gun. She has spent months of winters in a tent. Still she tries to keep her dream alive. The dream of being able to walk 100 meters from her home without fearing a soldier.

- This is no life. I get angry when I see children of settlers playing. The Israelis stole my childhood. My life is all about fear, she says.




Today I visited three families. One is a beduine- family living in the district area of Hebron. The mother, aged 33, is expecting her fifth child. She woke up in February by soldiers standing outside her little house she bought for her own money years ago. The soldiers didn’t come by foot. The soldiers arrived in a bulldozer. Within few hours her house was gone.
- You have been warned. You should go and live in the village, they shouted at her in Hebrew. Hundred meters away jewish settlers from Russia and other parts of Eastern- Europe is building their houses. The standard is not even close to western standards. The settlers here are poor people coming to the promised land, to occupy land for free.
- They didn’t grow up her. I did, the 33 year-old mother says with intense anger.
The soldiers choosed to come in wintertime. They completed their mission while the mother was left outside with her four sons, bearfeet in the cold night. The soldiers threatened to kill every neighbour that would try to come to her rescue.
In this areas it gets freezing in the night. In the morning she managed to get help and was brought to hospital with her three months old baby. His condition was critical. Spending the night outside in the cold, with a mother suffering of a nervous breakdown in an extremely tense situation, made him go into illness that kept him three months in hospital. His mother was out after three weeks. She couldn’t sleep, eat, not even stand on her feet because of the terror that had struck her body. Her son, Josef, would wet himself every time he saw an Israeli soldier. He would not sleep, and when he finally slept, he would scream of fear in his dreams. His older brothers started to get aggressive.
MSF has supported this people with a psychologist. Since January this year four different therapists have visited 600 different clients. They were the one with visible symptoms of suffering from trauma caused by interference with Israeli settlers or police. The rest are on their one.
On the other side of the boarders the young Israelian soldiers are put to control the Palestinian. The Israelian army has a high number of suicides among their young militants. For some the orders they get are to though to carry out. The Israeli also has to deel with news like which we received yesterday. Two muslims from the west-banc area was stopped on their way to Jerusalem. They had explosives on them and were ready to spend their next life in Paradise.

How to pass time in an airport

www.ingeborgrefsnes.com/amsterdam

søndag 25. november 2007

Framme i Hebron

Just some shots out of the window

Min første solnedgang i Midtøsten. Tatt i bilen fra Jerusalem til HEbron.







Jerusalem: Palestinsk beboelse( og profil av sjåfør... )

I have arrived both Jerusalem and now Hebron.
I have a great support in the MSF, there has been some closed roads because of bombthreaths in Jerusalem, but MSF has helped me out in the best way as possible. So I am in Hebron and will start visiting families tomorrow. Hebron is something else, see my blog for more later.I am very happy to be here.See you soon.
Ingeborg

Jeg starter tidlig i morgen, så jeg tror jeg legger meg nå og lar dette være min hilsen så langt.
Natta fra et spennende palestinsk nabolag i H1, Fullmåne over taket ...

onsdag 21. november 2007

Utstilling

This woman was leaning out of her window in the little town of Cachueira in Brazil, in the District of Bahia.We had a wonderful conversation about life and how to keep spirited.
"But why do you want a picture of me?".
"Because you are beautyful".
"HA! Beautyful? That picture you take will only surve the purpuse to scare away flies".


I don´t think so. I am so sorry I didn´t get her name. She didn´t know that she would end up on a wall in a small cafe of Denmark. Neither did I . But I am sure that her picture surves more as an inspiration than to scare away flies.....

Kvinnen er mitt bidrag til klassens utstilling på en kafé her i Århus.

fredag 16. november 2007

Lyngvig fyr - Shepherd of the night

At the stormy coast of western Denmark, Christen used to patrol the beach every night there were local ships in danger in the frothing sea. He was on guard for six hours, walking the beach, up and down, looking for flares. One night the 24-year old finds his brother drowned at beach. His brothers boat has turned over in the heavy waves.
- God put me on a test that night, says 82-year old Christen.

Christens mother died when he was twelve and the little boy was to learn how sorrow hits you. He was confronted with dark nights of solitude while his father was out working at the rescue ship. - I used the glimpse from the lighthouse to find my way to grandmoms house. The light reminded me of lightning and thunder. I had to teach myself to be fond of the luminosity it brought to my life.
To Christen, the lighthouse is more than a glimpse in the dark. - It has been the light of my life.
- We don´t use big words out here in the west Jylland. Perhaps people survived because of Lyngvig fyr. Perhaps not. Signe Nedregaard, daughter of the last keeper of the lighthouse in Hvide Sande. While the storms were hitting the western coast of Jylland in the 20th century, terrified seamen would search the sky for any sign of the lighthouse.

View from one of the windows at Lyngvig fyr. You could get assosiations to a moon landscpe.
The lighthouse of Lyngvig is 35 meters tall and many have felt dizzy in the staircase. The lighthouse moves slightly with the wind.

torsdag 15. november 2007

KLIKK HER OG SE MAGASINET VI LAGDE I HVIDE SANDE.... PDF FIL......

Jesus • Surfers • Sailors • Teenagers • Lighthouse • Hotel • Fishermen • Lock keepers

Going to Hebron

24th of November I leave Denmark to go to Hebron, Palestine.
I will go with Doctors without Borders. They have permitted me to visit their project in Umm al Kheir, where they work with children that suffers from trauma because of the conflict between the settlers and the Palestine population.

onsdag 17. oktober 2007

Born Dead - a multimedia production


This is a slideshow. Listen to Akis story.
www.enlowphotos.com/Danna/index.html


The slideshow takes 3 minutes and pops up if you click the link above.


Iranian Aki was born dead. She is a true surviver. She sold me a rose. I couldn´t forget her and went back to portray her. Made by: Ingeborg Refsnes and Dana Ullmann.





And when you are into it, why not see this one as well:



made by my German class mate Anne from Berlin.

søndag 14. oktober 2007

lørdag 13. oktober 2007

fredag 12. oktober 2007

torsdag 4. oktober 2007

Looking through my files...




Fadavi is an artist who came from Iran to Århus in the 80´s. I convinced him it was a good idea to bring out one of his paintings....It works as a background I think.. The girl is from a serie I made from "Århus kulturuke". ...

tirsdag 2. oktober 2007

A day in the life of Alma

















Every morning Alma is taken out to the forest to spend the day with her friends. The supervision of the adults is bearely notable. This kindergarden lets the children play alone and the adults keep their distance to the play that envolves in the open field. This is the childs world.

Fransk dadaistisk tropp







Les Cubitenistes

The Aarhus Festival had the honour of presenting the world's smallest cinema.
Thaught Id just show the picture I took...to show you the consept. Really good idea!



"This cinema is so well appointed that you may be entertained by a movie and live acting all at the same time, and there is no admission charge whatsoever. Just pop inside and enjoy the show. This tiny movie theatre "stands" no less than 30 persons at a time".