Homeless, fleeing war, famine or poverty, travelling across many countries and seas. living in tents, replying on the help of others for the basics of life, shelter, food, drink and medicine, with few possessions apart from some clothes, perhaps some tools and a few pieces of sentimental jewellery that have survived the thieves along the way and, in the 21st century, a few photographs or perhaps everything stored on a precious mobile phone.
Arriving in strange countries to mixed reactions; in some cases welcoming, friendly and helpful; in others threatening, abusive and intimidating. And, for some, such is the hope of a better life that the ultimate sacrifice is made searching for it.
The movement of refugees across countries has been going on for ever and, as photographer Marksteen Adamson reminds us in his photographs mounted on temporary metal fencing in St Martin’s in the Fields in London, Jesus Christ himself was born into a family which were refugees. Here, in a project in conjunction with Premier Christianity magazine, photographs of refugees who Adamson met in Calais, Lebanon and the UK have been translated into the fourteen Stations of the Cross, depicting Christ’s final journey to the Cross on Good Friday. Here are images which are relevant to any religion showing deprivation, humiliation, imprisonment, but also love, trust and the joy of family life.
