Every year, thousands of people risk their lives crossing the Mediterranean Sea. They board overcrowded, unseaworthy boats, knowing the journey could be their last. Between Libya and Italy, the waters are unforgiving. In twenty twenty three alone, more than twenty five hundred people died or vanished in these depths.
Yet still they come. Because the alternative — staying behind — feels impossible.
I lived in refugee camps during my first year in Germany. I listened to their stories. Survival. Loss. Hope. In December twenty twenty two, I was given the chance to witness this journey firsthand. I joined SOS Humanity, a rescue organization searching the central Mediterranean for boats in distress. Our mission was simple: find them, bring them to safety, bring them to Italy.
What I photographed was not just a crossing. It was humanity at its most vulnerable and most resilient. It was families holding onto each other in the darkness. It was the moment when someone finally touches solid ground and realizes they have survived. It was the weight of displacement, the exhaustion of journeys that should never have been necessary.
These are the stories the world often forgets. These photographs are their testimony.
