Claudia Willmitzer

biometric pictures of Ahmad which he use to apply for the schengen Visa in the dutch Embassy. He got an artist Visa granted and got stamped from Lebanon of no return

classic concert in Istanbul which we watched on the outside screen

Portrait by Ahmad after arriving with him in Amsterdam, Netherlands

The building complex of Bijlmerbajes AZC in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Love in Asylum

Our relationship began in 2015 Lebanon when I met Ahmad in Beirut. Ahmad is a musician and painter and left Syria because of the war in 2012. While I was returning to Europe to study in Vienna, Ahmad travelled to Europe via Turkey to seek asylum. He decided to claim asylum in Austria and was transferred back to the Netherlands due the Dublin agreement. I joined him and spent a year with him during the period of Asylum. We shared our beds, feelings and sorrows. In December 2016 Ahmad received permanent residence status in the Netherlands.

Claudia Willmitzer

Claudia Willmitzer is an international photographer born 1982 in Germany. She graduated from Friedl Kubelka School for Artistic Photography and Independent Film in Vienna, Austria. The last years she has covered social issues in the Middle East and South Asia. Although her tendency become more and more focusing on artistic expression and social issues of societies in the Arabic and Persian based countries. Her field of interests are human relation in challenging political environments. This includes the relation to each other and others territories. In 2016 she moved back to Europe where she continuously works on visual storytelling. Her work mostly reflects a minimalistic perspective of society and culture through photography. Her work is significant by an intimate relation to her subjects and the focus on paradoxical norms of societies and their environments. She is based in Amsterdam.