About the exhibition

Yosef Haimanont was born in Ethiopia but has lived most of his life in the UK. In this photographic project, grounded primarily in documentary aesthetics, this young filmmaker goes back to his home Ethiopia after 21 years exile. He backtracks his journey step by step showing the places that he lived during the early years of his life-long journey.

Yosef was born in 1975 and lived through the civil war and the famine in 1984, which he witnessed this first hand as a child. In 1988 at the age of 13 he and his brother climbed the anchor and stowed away on a Greek ship, which was bound for the UK. While on board they were discovered and imprisoned until the ship reached its destination. There, they were handed over to immigration officers. They ended up in the care of the social services. He was aged thirteen and didn't speak a word of English. Between 1988 and 1991 he attended school, but he didn't complete this because of a general difficulty of the English Language. A few years later, when he felt that he had a better understanding of the English language, he went back to college to study performing arts.

Yosef then went on to a course in media communication, where he discovered that he had an affinity with the moving image. This led him to take a degree in film and then to do an MA in the same subject. In the processes he lost his own language and his family.

In this moving photographic exhibition, which will be supplemented by video imagery, he returns to his roots. The most moving images are his encounter with his mother, who he has not seen since childhood.