“I Am Not Your Animal” by Photographer Aline Deschamps

Aline Deschamps is a Thai-French photographer at present centered in Beirut, Lebanon. Passionate about geopolitics and visual arts, Deschamps’ function tackles social challenges such as identity, exile, and cultural heritage. In her most recent collection, “I Am Not Your Animal,” she follows the day-to-day life of Sierra Leonean migrant domestic workers she fulfilled in Beirut in 2020, documenting their ordeals in Beirut and their reintegration again into their homeland in 2022.

“The series’ title stems from the discussions I experienced with this group of girls, most of whom had escaped from abusive homes and had been victims of human trafficking,” Deschamps points out. “During the exchanges, all of them shared how considerably they felt dehumanized as soon as they established foot in Lebanon. One sentence stored getting recurring: ‘They did not handle me like a human, they taken care of me like an animal.’”

“‘I Am Not Your Animal’ aims to translate this intersectional expertise of staying a black migrant female in Lebanon, struggling with systemic racism in a nation in which the black human body is frequently lessened to 1 situation: the one of a ‘servant’. It also needs to translate a a lot more latent and individual violence: the one of getting stranded in a foreign state, and of making an attempt to talk the unspeakable with the households back again house. By juxtaposing these women’s letters with their day-to-day daily life pictures, the task highlights their resilience found in exile, the agonizing reintegration into their society, and the unbelievable bond of motherhood which enabled both equally sacrifices and the responsibility of survival – despite the distance.” 

See more from “I Am Not Your Animal” under.