This project examines migration as a lived experience shaped by borders, violence, and enforced immobility. States and territories construct border regimes that are both visible and invisible, producing zones of conflict where movement becomes increasingly dangerous and restricted. For those attempting to cross, borders are not abstract lines but physical and psychological barriers—barbed wire, fences, deserts, mountains, and the sea.

The work follows migration routes stretching from Southeast Africa through Sudan and Libya, across the Mediterranean to Lampedusa, and from Afghanistan through remote mountain passes into Turkey, and onward by sea to the Greek island of Lesbos. These journeys are often undertaken on foot, over months or years, through hostile terrain and under constant threat.

Many of the young people refugees I encountered describe overcrowded boats, night crossings, and the ever-present risk of death at sea. Their movement toward European territory reveals the violence embedded in border systems and exposes the fragile threshold between survival and loss. This project seeks to bear witness to these journeys and to question the political structures that render movement a matter of endurance and risk.

Antonie Grahamsdaughter