PATRICIA KRIVANEK - EXPOSURE INTERNATIONAL OPEN CALL

Laila and Siti do not exist.

Not on paper, anyway. Before they were born, their parents fled their home country of Myanmar and landed in Malaysia, a country which does not grant legal status to refugees, including future generations. Without a nationality, the sisters have been robbed of any form of identification, education, healthcare, employment and freedom of movement. They were born with no rights.

#NoRightToExist is a story about courage. The courage of two sisters who dare to survive and dare to be proud of who they are. The daily challenges of being illegal are unimaginable. Fear of being reported and detained by the authorities permeates every aspect of their lives. But worse than the fear, is the feeling of invisibility.

As second generation refugees, the sisters have fallen between the cracks. They no longer identify with the culture of their parents, but they are not accepted as Malaysian. They are left with only each other and a virtual world they have discovered where they can belong: social media.

With no requirements for identification, social media is the only space the sisters have found to create their own identities without the label ‘refugee’. They can express themselves they way they want to be seen.

#NoRightToExist is a challenge to the common perception of refugees and the limited understanding of their long term struggles. Malaysia is not unique in the region. With nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees scattered throughout South and Southeast Asia, countries such as Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, India and Pakistan do not recognize refugees either.

This work was developed in close collaboration with the sisters. They shared their thoughts and dreams and contributed art and writing. This work gives them a voice in the representation of their own identity.

Laila and Siti exist here.

BIOGRAPHY

Patricia is a Canadian-Mexican visual storyteller based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Her work is split between intimate personal projects and on issues of social justice and human rights. In her personal work, Patricia explores themes of identity, belonging and motherhood through her family. In her other work, she focuses on injustices towards marginalised and disadvantaged groups around the world.

Throughout her work, Patricia uses an anthropological lens to create images that speak to the human experience. She experiments with different approaches to photography to create a deeper connection as she believes in empathy as a tool for change.

Before undertaking photography, Patricia worked in the field of humanitarian relief. She lived and worked in over 18 countries including with the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Sudan, and with UNICEF in Somalia. She holds a B.A in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia and a Master’s of Science in International Development and Children’s Rights from the University of Amsterdam in The Netherlands.

Patricia is a self-taught photographer. After the birth of her first child, she used photography to understand her new identity as a mother. From 2018-2022, Patricia worked with various UN and NGO’s to document their programs for reporting, advocacy and fundraising. She also started working on personal projects from 2020.

Patricia’s work has been exhibited in a number of international exhibitions including with the Uppsala FotoFestival in Sweden 2022, the Exposure + Festival in Malaysia in 2022 and with the virtual exhibition “Edition 365” about Covid-19 with the British Journal of Photography. In 2021 one of her images was selected as a finalist for the Kuala Lumpur Canon Malaysia Photo Award.