honorable mention
Inge van Mill netherlands
title
'Second-class citizen'
The divisions that I perceive I see among back at Moroccan-Dutch boys since. They mention that they experience since a long time, they feel they are stigmatized and put aside in a negative way. The boys feel that they are seen as second-class citizens. What is the effect on someone when he isn’t treated as a full-fledged and equal person?
It brought me to go and hear the personal story of these Moroccan-Dutch boys, born in the Netherlands. This led to a personal and intimate portrait, their environment and a theater play.
Most of their parents and parents and grandparents were born in Morocco and came in the sixties/ seventies as immigrant worker to the Netherlands. They settled, among others, in the Schilderswijk in The Hague: a poor, multi-ethnic neighbourhood. Integration was slow, and these people found little connection to Dutch society. The second and third generation Moroccan-Dutch boys portrayed in the project 'Second-class Citizens' were raised in the Schilderswijk. Here, a macho street culture reigns.
The problems that I found are complex. These boys live with great distrust. They have experienced a lot of negativity in their lives, and have often been disappointed, what has damaged them. Restoring trust takes a lot of time. Besides that, something actually has to change in their situation and in the society. What these boys told me, is that they want to be accepted for who they are. This rarely happens. Therefore, they withdraw into their own group, and their neighbourhood.
“Through my journalistic & artistic background I observe the world in which we coexist. Subjects I approach on content and with feeling, to be able to unravel our complex society and visualise this, encompassing it in all her layers. I search for the area of tension in which everything comes together: the surprise of the unexpected is my motive. I hope to touch and surprise my audience with my work.
To observe my surroundings has fascinated me since childhood. My curiosity takes me to places undiscovered by myself; it is an intrinsic driving force which fuels me. In my projects I reflect on what I see and that which occupies me, in which society is a constant source of inspiration. Reoccurring themes are: reality versus illusion, vulnerability as strength, the internal and external world and inequality in society.
What are the effects of our performance driven culture and commerce on our collective awareness and us as individuals? These mechanisms I strive to weather. I grew up in a western society where focus lies on materialism and appearance and where the inner realm with her senses, thoughts and feelings usually becomes viewed as being of minor importance. Through my projects I search for that inner world, exactly those areas where both worlds collide and fuse.
Van Mill got acquainted with photography through her father at a young age. At Sint Lucas in Boxtel, an art school for the creative industry, her interest in photography developed further, in 1998 she graduated and continued her education at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague, where she graduated in 2002.
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entry description
Society hardens, there is dissatisfaction and there is fear of others without knowing them personally. Prejudice and exclusion dominate and mutual distrust is growing. A breeding ground is created from which grows polarisation and discrimination, these are the order of the day.The divisions that I perceive I see among back at Moroccan-Dutch boys since. They mention that they experience since a long time, they feel they are stigmatized and put aside in a negative way. The boys feel that they are seen as second-class citizens. What is the effect on someone when he isn’t treated as a full-fledged and equal person?
It brought me to go and hear the personal story of these Moroccan-Dutch boys, born in the Netherlands. This led to a personal and intimate portrait, their environment and a theater play.
Most of their parents and parents and grandparents were born in Morocco and came in the sixties/ seventies as immigrant worker to the Netherlands. They settled, among others, in the Schilderswijk in The Hague: a poor, multi-ethnic neighbourhood. Integration was slow, and these people found little connection to Dutch society. The second and third generation Moroccan-Dutch boys portrayed in the project 'Second-class Citizens' were raised in the Schilderswijk. Here, a macho street culture reigns.
The problems that I found are complex. These boys live with great distrust. They have experienced a lot of negativity in their lives, and have often been disappointed, what has damaged them. Restoring trust takes a lot of time. Besides that, something actually has to change in their situation and in the society. What these boys told me, is that they want to be accepted for who they are. This rarely happens. Therefore, they withdraw into their own group, and their neighbourhood.
about the photographer
Inge van Mill (1976, The Hague, the Netherlands) has been a professional photographer / photojournalist for nineteen years. She is also an artist and has recently started making documentaries.“Through my journalistic & artistic background I observe the world in which we coexist. Subjects I approach on content and with feeling, to be able to unravel our complex society and visualise this, encompassing it in all her layers. I search for the area of tension in which everything comes together: the surprise of the unexpected is my motive. I hope to touch and surprise my audience with my work.
To observe my surroundings has fascinated me since childhood. My curiosity takes me to places undiscovered by myself; it is an intrinsic driving force which fuels me. In my projects I reflect on what I see and that which occupies me, in which society is a constant source of inspiration. Reoccurring themes are: reality versus illusion, vulnerability as strength, the internal and external world and inequality in society.
What are the effects of our performance driven culture and commerce on our collective awareness and us as individuals? These mechanisms I strive to weather. I grew up in a western society where focus lies on materialism and appearance and where the inner realm with her senses, thoughts and feelings usually becomes viewed as being of minor importance. Through my projects I search for that inner world, exactly those areas where both worlds collide and fuse.
Van Mill got acquainted with photography through her father at a young age. At Sint Lucas in Boxtel, an art school for the creative industry, her interest in photography developed further, in 1998 she graduated and continued her education at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague, where she graduated in 2002.
back to gallery
