Bryan Meltz

RESETTLED: Clarkston, GA: 4x5 Polaroids

“Before the war our life was good, we had four little girls. I learned to farm when I was a girl in Somalia. We got separated when the war came to our home, the home where my parents were killed. We started running, and the older girls ran away on their own. It was too dangerous for me to go back. Bullets were flying. I was afraid of losing the two children I was carrying, may God help me. I carried them both out of Somalia…” ----Arbai Barre Abdi, 2004.

¬Arbai Barre Abdi was one of nearly 13,000 Somali Bantu refugees that were resettled throughout the US beginning in 2004. I met Arbai that same year when she and her four children were placed in Clarkston, Georgia directly from a refugee camp in Kenya. It is estimated that 1 in 3 of Clarkston’s residents are immigrants and over sixty languages are now spoken in this small Southern town. Having traveled thousands of miles for the promise of a new start, Arbai arrived in the US filled with a tremendous hope for a better life, for herself and for her children.

   
This series of portraits began in 2006 when I began using my 4x5 camera to document Arbai’s growing family on my weekly visits. The pace of working with a large format camera allowed for a different form of collaboration, and soon after I began, neighbors, friends, and children from the complex began lining up for their portraits. Almost none of them had family photos in their homes, and for many it was the first time they had their pictures taken. For the past eight years, I have had the privilege of bearing witness to their overwhelming spirit as they assimilate to American life, while still preserving the traditions of their culture.