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“being human� Produced by Photo1 International Students Danish School of Media and Journalism Spring 2016 2
Front cover: Theresa Albers Back cover: Rahul Dhankani
BEING HUMAN SPLIT SECOND 4
// Emanuele Occhipinti
BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN ARMS 14
// Noa City-Eliyahu
PEACEFUL WARRIOR 22
// Heba Khamis
SCRAP RELIEF 30
// Mikael Rydenfelt
COMEBACK 40
// Theresa Albers
HOMELESS & DETERMINED 48
// Inuuteq Kriegel
THE SMELL OF REVOLUTION
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// Rahul Dhankani
VOLUNTEER FIGHTER 66
// Maciej Antkowiak
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SPLIT SECOND It’s difficult to understand how things can change in the blink of an eye, unless we experience it for ourselves. This is the story of a Danish family whose life changed suddenly. It’s a story of how, despite all the misfortune and adversity, they manage to overcome.
by Emanuele Occhipinti
Erling shuts the door quietly. It’s early in the morning and everyone else is still asleep. We decide to sit in the living room, next to the window. Sitting crossed legged, he is playing with his electronic cigarette when he starts to speak about the car accident, probably the beginning of everything. “I can remember it so clearly as if it happened yesterday, it’s some sort of bad movie for me. If I want to relive that day, what actually happened, I just have to press the PLAY buttom and then the movie starts…It was early on a Sunday morning, the streets were quiet and it seemed like there was no other car in the city. The children had slept over at their grandmother’s house the night before and I was just on my way to pick them up. They were happy. Everything was nice and normal, the day seemed just like any other, quiet and calm. We got in the car and I started to drive. Mads was sitting next to me, Line in the back”. Erling is taking a deep breath before continuing with his story. “Suddenly, like a lightening bolt appearing from a blue sky, a car crashes into us and at very high speed. BAM! I was paralysed, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t feel my body. My first thought were my children. I could see my son Mads next to me, shocked and terrified. He turned to me and said, “Dad, I don’t want to die today.” I couldn’t see Line, because she was on the back seat, and I couldn’t move my neck to see her. That was a terrible feeling. After what seemed like forever the sirens of an ambulance told me that somebody was here to help us. Thankfully, from this awful accident, the only one who was injured was me. I broke my back. It is hard to explain the effect that this accident had on my children, because they were not physically injured but it made a very strong impression on them psychologically.”
LEFT: April 2005. The P edersen family in their house, seven monthsbefore the accident. TOP: Erling Pedersen,57. He is a guitarist and composer. After the accident, he quit the music for a few years. Recently he has started composing again. 6
“I will not blame everything that has happened to my family on that car accident- but it was to be the start of a series of events that drained our resources over the next few years, in that way this moment has a special meaning�.
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Line Pedersen,16. Two years ago she started to get private education at home. She is currently studying to get her final exams. Right: A painting of Line Pedersen. “No one knows for sure what the painting means, unless I tell them, and I like that mystery”.
Jette Bruun, 56. She is the main support for her daughter. The great great grandparents of Line in 1904. Due to her love for history, few years ago she started researching about her family’s ancestors . “It’s fascinating how I can relate and see myself in someone who lived so long ago”. 8
“When I’m painting my brain stops, it´s like time stands still, I can sit there for hours”. Line is the youngest child of Erning and Jette, a middle-aged danish couple who have been together for 35 years. She was only five years old when the accident happened. Line loves painting, “It’s a way to relax ” she said. She is sitting on the sofa hugging a pillow when suddenly a beautiful light illuminates her face. “I get easily stressed. The smallest things, like going out or visiting some family who lives outside the city, is tough. It takes a long time for me to get my energy back, sometimes it takes days. People who have anxiety can feel it at different times: before doing something, whilst their doing something or after. For me it is more difficult, because I can feel them mostly all the time. In a way my head is always worrying, and that makes me feel incredibly tired. The symptoms make everything harder, even the seemingly most insigni ficant things. It’s like a vicious circle, I can’t get out off.” Line’s symptoms started when she was 12 years old. Today,her former hard work and the support of her parents pays off. She is getting better and better which is as well amplified by her positive attitude.
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#1 Mads’s polaroid
#2 Mads’s polaroid
#3 Mads’s polaroid
Mads, 19. His goal for the future is to become indipendent. “I would love to be able to do all the simple dailylife action without the help of somebody else. I’m working hard on it, and sooner or later I’ll make it”.
“Me and my sister are really lucky to have Erling and Jette as parents, I don’t think we could p rogress as much as we do w ithout their daily support.
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After a week of been visiting the Pedersen’s house, today I’ll meet for the first time Mads, the brother of Line. Since May 2014 he has been living in a Centre for “Youngsters with Mental Health Difficulties”. The door is open and a nice smell of coffee come from the kitchen, just in front of the entrance. Salsa, the dog of the family, is barking festively. Mads is sitting in the living room and he welcome me with a giant smile. We start play cards and after a bit, he start to talk about his last four years: “Do you know the snowball effect meanings? he asked . “Is a process that starts from an initial state, becoming larger and also potentially dangerous. For me it was the same.
When I was 15, I start to feel sad without reasons and I start to isolate myself. In less than four months I start to hear voices in my head, see things that they were no real, and lose any sense of reality. I was hospitalized”. Like his sister Line, the way Mads is talking to me is something hard to find in any 19-year-old boy. My impression is that they are both very mature for their ages. “Today I feel much better. I’m doing a lot’s of progress and the symptoms of my illness are less than before. I’m more positive and I’ll fight with all my energy to get better and better. That’s my aim for the future”.
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LEFT: Jette,56. “Sometimes I feel sad because my children’s youths have been taken away, but mostly I’m proud of them because they are strong and creative children”. TOP: In the last year The relation between Line and Mads has become stronger and stronger.
Jette is waiting for me on the doorstep. It’s the first time I have the opportunity to talk in depth with her. She’s 56 and she work as a social assistant for youngsters with mental problems. It’s a sunny day and we decided to walk in park near by. “After the accident, our life started to change, says Jette. “Erling had lost his job a month before that day, and, because his back was broken, he couldn’t even try to find work. He began to feel increasingly isolated. It was really difficult to communicate with him. When he started to feel better his mother went ill and eventually died. For him it was another big shock. In less then two years, he lost all the members of his family - except for one sister - and this was another time in which he again felt very distressed, and that influenced all of us, including the children. I felt really alone for a few months”, she says. ”Soon we started to notice how Mads attitude was changing. He began to spend more and more time in his room, alone. One day, suddenly, he came downstairs and said: “I think there is something wrong in my head, I need to see a psychiatrist.” We were shocked once again and the diagnosis was hard to believe - P aranoid Schizophrenia. As a final knockout Line started to feel overloaded one year after her brother was hospitalized. It was hard to believe that all my family, in different ways and proportions, were having a problems. I was completely lost at the beginning, but I found the resources and energy to react and support all of them. It wasn’t easy but I did, and today we all feel much better. Erling, Mads and Line are fighting daily to get better and that helps me a lot. I feel hopeful for the future of my kids and my partner. Sometimes when I see all of them laughing and playing together in a quiet moment I can start to cry. But there are tears of happiness for what it was and for what is today.”
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Brothers And sisters by Noa City-Eliyahu 15
Private Amanda Camilla Gram and private Martin Kjær Hornbjerg Andersen during simulation.
It’s been a year since the Danish army started accommodating men and women in the same rooms. I joined one of the platoons for four days to see what makes the difference and how it turned out.
the base. He introduces me to the platoon leader Jes Borregaard. Borregaard takes me to the platoon. I don’t see groups of men alone and women alone, but all together. Seems that the atmosphere is very laid back, the commander trusts his conscripts to do the job, although they don’t take it for granted.
Back in the days
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t’s nighttime and the couple is ready to go out, only that the woman is taking forever. He’s waiting for her, looks at the clock impatiently. This cliché scenario is not part of army life in the army base in Aalborg. “Women are much better in timing. In other rooms where there are only men it showed that in the beginning the men were late all the time while rooms with both genders were always on time” says private Jeppe Sejerø Arildsen. In 1988 the Danish army started recruiting women into the army. Yet, they never had to. Men are chosen by the lottery way, and women volunteer. Although, a growing number of men volunteers resulted a long waiting list. So, as Denmark’s obviously not facing any threats from the outside and as a former soldier in a country where army is mandatory conscription, I was eager to know what brings men and women to volunteer in the army and what motivates them. “From morning to evening the base is wide open, so anyone can go inside.” declares premier lotnant Søren Krogager when we enter
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“Of course there will always be distance, but we try to show the conscripts that we are friends and they have someone to come to when they need. “Says the platoon leader.
Dedication he conscripts go through a first aid class, where they learn how to dress a bandage to a wounded soldier. They choose their partner and there are many couples from the opposite gender practicing on each other. As a part of the practice the conscripts need to remove the shirt of their partner. It doesn’t seem to bother them because they are already used to it. In the rooms they change next to each other, they shower in the presence of each other(with curtains of course), they laugh together, they talk to one another, they work out together, they just hang out together. All the time. At times it felt a bit like summer camp. “The main target of the Danish army is not only to focus on the combat roles but also, and not less important on the self development of each conscript. We are here to train them to both become good disciplined soldiers, develop skills that they never had before and also make them better people back in civil life” says the platoon leader.
The conscripts duscussing what went right and what went wrong during the simulation.
“We are not bothered by having couples in the platoon. Being men and women together in the rooms actually decreased the amount of couples in the army, because now that they are in the same rooms it’s harder have a relationship. They are aware that it might not do so well” Captain Søren Egebæk, Pressofficer. 17
“We encourage them to do a career in the army and show them that they can grow bigger, doesn’t matter what they decide to do in life. Although, it takes great skills to become a leader. A soldier can be amazingly physically fit but not so good when it comes to being dominant and he/she wont be able to become a leader, and the opposite way around. The people that we notice that can become great leaders but lack of some important skills, we try to talk to them into developing these skills.” Back in the rooms its nighttime and the conscripts are not yet ready to go to sleep. They are all watching the movie ´Black hawk down’. Each one on their bed and some on the floor, even conscripts from a different platoon join. A conversation between me and private Jeppe Sejerø Arildsen starts and he explains what works so good between the genders when accommodated together. “I believe that women soften the men, in terms of lowering their ego, making them more considerate and teach us how to live better life together”. Private Volmer Rathman Jahnsen adds “ I always seem to forget where I put my things in the room and living together made is so much easier, because the other women would always remind me. they are usually more organized than us” Also private Lærke Zacharias Lütken shares why in her opinion it was a wise decision to bring men and women together under the same roof. “Women and men together create a better relationship and we become closer as friends and colleagues instead of creating a gap between the sex. I’ve definitely become more comfortable when sleeping in the same room as the men. I learn from their frustration and success in hard situations. Because men and women react different. And us being so close makes me want to compete against them instead of thinking that I can’t. It makes us more equal.” Changing after a long day.
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During war, the enemy doesn’t care what gender you are
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hen comes the question whether the advantages maintain during trainings or during deployment. Joining the platoon day after for the training in a simulated city answered my question. Getting ready for the training, one male conscripts helps his female friend to fix her hair so it will fit into the helmet. They are all well equipped; checking each other if everything is in place, if they didn’t forget anything. this day will present for them how it looks to serve together during deployment. They care for each other, yet they maintain professional, they all stand in front of the sergeant, all their eyes are turned directly to the him, concentrating on everything he has to say. At this point, they put the friendships they created on the side and focus on the mission, although its still there. “in the past where women and men were separated during their spare time it would be different to be in an actual training together. But now that they’re in the rooms together you can see it brings only good results as they all cooperate much better, they sense each other and mostly, they are so close that they embrace and learn from each other’s built-in q ualities. During training or deployment, they don’t see almost any differences. The only difference and it’s actually a big advantage would be that women are sometimes capable in reaching the locals better than men, because of cultural and religious differences and bring sensitivity to the area of the deployment” Says the platoon leader.
Conscripts helping each other prepare before training.
“The women have a very broad angel of what’s going on in the field, and they are able to look at the partner next to them. Men are very focused, sometimes too much on one thing, so they balance each other. And as well the opposite way around, women tend to overthink everything so men are very good in that matter.� Major Brian Busk, Chief of Staff
Private Pernille Brokholm Pedersen during training in a simulated city.
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Female soldiers getting ready before schedule begins.
A day after, I’m joining the platoon for a shooting range. Between every round the conscripts stick together. Suddenly, they gather around. The platoon has a woodrn shaped mascot. They challenge themselves to see who is able to stand on the mascot without falling (even the commander tries). Eventually, only one men and one women succeed and again it shows it’s not about the gender. At the shooting range they become serious. They focus on the target. I’m catching few of the conscripts to ask what brought them to the army. Most of the conscripts say it’s good for the resume. Some say it’s a really good experience and the rest think it will personally help them develop themselves and become better people in real life. “When you go to a job interview in Denmark, people look at you better when they see you’ve been to the army” says private Pernille Brokholm Pedersen. When it comes to who wants to stay in the army, I counted big number of conscripts that have intention in staying in the army and making a career out of it. Private Malene Muxoll Rasmussen adds to it “what brought me to the army was the physical aspects and also because I wanted to challenge myself and push some boundaries. When it get’s hard I find the motivation in my teammates. We are good at helping and encouraging each other. I’m actually considering to stay and continue the education in the army. I really like being in here and there are many possibilities”.
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Under the façade
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n the evening the conscripts become regular citizens and go out on a Thursday night with each other. As soon as they finish with the schedule for the day, they shower, change very quickly, making sure who is coming to they arrange as many taxis as needed. Their start is where they jump-start the night. A place you can find shots for 5 kroner each, so they fuel up just before we leave for a bar. You can see how comfortable they are with each other because they all drink, and they drink a lot, they are not embarrassed to show what’s under the façade because they know they are in a good company that they can trust and that will protect them and wont let anything bad happen to them. Moving from one bar to another, and it gets better and better. In the next bar they start dancing along with the band that is playing and signing out loud. The whole club is sitting down around the tables but they can’t sit one second. They are all around. Singing and dancing. Tomorrow morning the conscripts will wake up early to nother day full of action. They will go back to uniforms and to a follow commands. Although, under this uniforms exist people that live and breath each other. That is probably the best tactic.
“I really like going out with my platoon. We all enjoy each other’s company a lot and we are all on the same level. For me there is a big difference from going out back home, with my male friends only, and going out with my platoon. When we are only men there its rather tough tone compared to when there are both genders. its more relaxed.” Private Nicklas Holm Mikkelsen
An ordinary thrusday night with the conscripts.
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Peaceful Warrior A warrior is not about perfection or victory or invulnerability. He's about absolute vulnerability.
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“All the wars are the same since the stone age only people and weapons change� Martin Paszkiewicz Aaholms
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by Heba Khamis
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am a man without a purpose, without a mission”. he says that while he is trying to stop his tears from filling in his green sharp eyes surrounded by small wrinkles which give you the feelings that he is in his mid thirties. Martin Paszkiewicz Aaholms, 29 years old wounded danish soldier has a strong cold body with 35 °C, fighting for move his two heavy artificial legs. Trying to conduct his normal daily life needs with one hand with two fingers and the other one with three fingers. his whole back is covered with a tattoo that expresses the warrior in him, shows the explosion date, surrounded date, by a danish flag and a Valkyrie on her way coming across the sky to get him because he earned a seat in Valhalla to fight for doomsday but the guys around saved him from her. “It was a great honor for a viking to be chosen, she is symbolizing more than I was close to die” he said. On 30th of June, 2009, In Afghanistan, the 22 years old Martin was stressed trying to find his inner peace, cleaning and checking his weapon time after time making sure that nothing will fail. Next day morning his life will depend on this weapon. He will be fighting in a big Nato operation with 80,000 soldiers involved against Taliban. He needs to have the right bullet at the right time to protect himself. “I needed that security to know where I am going to hit before pulling the trigger, that I would know it will never hit an innocent I am trying to protect” he said. Lots of training and mixed feelings had come before this long day, his dream of being a real soldier in a big operation is coming true and he knew that they will faced with the ennemy so he was preparing himself to meet death. “I closed my eyes and saw the fight, visualized it, made a simulation of what was going to happen, how I will react to everything. Then my soul was at peace. I could go up and be ready”. A long night had gone and next day arrived. With peace in his soul and bullets in his weapon he was finishing his tasks, achieving victory in the front line trying to disturb his enemy and open the way for his colleagues. then he and the rest of the front line
“It’s a tatto I made to express the warrior in me” Martin said.
group got a report they should occupy two Afghan mud houses and make a “defense castle”. Martin opened the door and entered the house in a confident way after the explosives detector had shown that there were no bombs. Then the fateful moment arrived and everything changed for ever, as he walked on a no metal IED bomb buried in the ground. “The last thing I remember is going to sleep the day before” he says. It was so violent that it erased his memory for the whole day. Life changed on that day and will never be the same again. “I was disappointed to be shot. I got a gift and it’s something I wanted for my whole life, everything suddenly make sense, I got my code, didn’t have any fear then get the gift out and it’s gone”. Martin lost his both legs, three fingers from his right hand and two from the left. He lost also his purpose in life and peace on this day.
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“That’s who I am, running towards the danger while others running away from it” Martin Paszkiewicz Aaholms
After being unconscious for one month Martin woke up in Copenhagen. don’t remember the explosion date.
“ I needed to see if I was a warrior, if I could live up to the picture I had of myself as a warrior”
He takes a deep breath everyday morning and goes forward in life thinking how does he get out of this bed. That is what warriors do, according to the Bushido philosophy Martin believes in life has plans for everyone of us. It chose him as a warrior and prepared him since he was kid, reading war history books at school. In 2006 he volunteered for the army and trained to be a soldier at Kosovo.
Martin believes it’s not possible to rebuild a country without a proper security, it goes hand in hand, but the change should come from people wanting the peace, the army plant some seeds and let it grow up. Seeing a development in Afghanistan gives him rest in the evening.
“ That’s who I am, running towards the danger while others run away from it. I trained my whole live to be a good warrior, I have my code of honor whenever I go out. Every action I do I try to do it according to my code of honor”. He sent to war in february 2009.
“I sleep like a child even though I am sleeping in a war zone” Martin said. He is seeking peace in his soul through war, to help other people live in a safe and peaceful place but in his deep soul he was helping himself to feel the warrior inside him through giving peace to these people.
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“I will never give up, I will fight to the end if that is nessasry� Martin Paszkiewicz Aaholms
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Martin chooses to live away from city and rebuild a house with his own injured hands. He is offering the house for sale to move near to his work at the army which he fought for 6 years to stay in, finally last November. when he got his contract to work at the army typing on a computer.
“I cannot plan for five years, ten years ahead. I can only live day by day … I know what I will do till the contract runs out in 2022 but after that I am without purpose, I didn’t find my place in the universe yet ” he said.
“I felt a peace in myself and I can’t get that out of sitting in an office or supermarket, I am grateful that I still have this uniform”. He is Fighting his own invisible enemy to wake up everyday searching for his own purpose.
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by Mikael Rydenfelt
er name is Eeva Burman and this is her portrait. Power lines bundles scenery into one, together with tyre marks —first sign of occasional settlement. Followed by a remote house and then more often, houses accompanied by barn and eventually more and more barns. Red ochre paint all over. Huts whose curtains have seen more sun than an average article reader ever will. Lakes. Myriads of icy water systems, with rivers and bonds, their names melting into heralds of oblivion. Village —formed by only dozen decayed households— called ”Syrjä” (something between ”Remote” or ”Isolated” in english) is about thirty kilometers away from here. The Scenery opens from the hill, rises to a second mound and disappears to a third one. Turn left. Time moves slower than light. This is where we meet Eeva Burman, a dairy farmer with 19 cows. For ninety-two years, a time of twenty-six newborn births, someone from her family has been keeping shimmering light shining from the homesteads window, in the middle of pitch black forest.
Somebody wearing ski-pants turns to keep a eye on bypasser. Nobody cares about dress code here, but no-one knows what next year will bring along either.
Accident on the engagement day anniversary
This fall would have been their 30th year together in the marriage and doing the farming. Last time she talk to her husband was in the living room. There he sat, on a squeaking rocking chair. That was their last moment together. ”That chair. It was so good for my husband that he used it everyday, a lot. He enjoyed it. I saw him sitting in there when I left to do weaving, in former school four kilometers away. From that rocking chair he said that I should drive carefully, so that nothing happens.” Bad things happened. She found her husband lying on the ground. He had gone to repair farmsteads roof and fell down. It is still hard to believe it, accept that he has left, four months after the funeral. Next autumn will probably be the worst, Eeva Burman thinks. There are many questions, but no one to give answers. When darkness gains ground, at that time reality hits.
Almost right after the long recovery from her shoulder injury, Eeva Burmans husband died. 32
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”It is hard to fall asleep before twelve o clock at night. That’s the time when I keep thinking about those things by myself.” One only realizes the value of the things when loosing them, she says. The most important things happen there in the middle, while unnoticed. If you only would know the right time to make a stop so in that way it would be so much easier to keep going. But there is no time given to stop. ”At 5:45 am the alarm goes off… Cows have to be milked two times a day, seven days a week, same rhythm over and over again.” You simply cannot stop. Keep going forward is the only option available.
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Still, despite serious nerve problems in her right hand and sometimes with the help of her adult children, she does her best every day. Constantly. Her lifelong relationship with cows is based on mutual respect. They follow her movements and when she kindly, but firmly asks any cow to move, it obeys.
The burden is the only certainty.
Like anyone in her situation, Eeva Burman can not avoid facing the present agricultural reality and grim future. Accounts easily go to nil. Those times, one only hopes to end up being state foreclosure customer, because state urges less money for same bill than business driven debt collection companies do. The worst situation is when electricity is cut off; cows will suffer because it will be nearly impossible to milk them, dairy will not keep cold and therefore all the earnings will disappear instantly. Eeva Burman is not alone. Agriculture in Finland is in big crises. When old livestockers quit, there is no new ones who continues to breed veals. The reality of the payslip is, that even when you work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, rate of pay is awful —below 1600₏ a month on average. Profits are almost non existent and having a holiday is a almost a foreign word. Counted by hours, farmers have only five full days of state granted stand-in holidays a year. Farmers feel that they don’t earn more than they did before, but still market leader of grocery chain reports that it sold 3,2 million kilos more
Working inside the cowhouse usually takes altogether about eight hours a day.
Late husband got rocking chair as a gift on his 60th birthday. 35
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Finnish-made cheese and 2,8 million kilos more Finnish meat than last year. During ten years time the average size of dairy farm has doubled. Farmers need to run to even stay still, they say.
Banks consider farming as a risky business.
At the same time agricultural economy seems to be in a free fall. Finlands biggest finance group Osuuspankki reported that last year (2015) they had doubled the number of changes on farms loans compared to previous year. In practice these changes mean postponements of loan amortizations, modification of following
installments maturity dates or admitting short-therm credit for paying upcoming payments. Looking 30 years back in history, it was same reason of overgrown loans that forced the most of economically healthy farms into bankruptcies. �Now is the exactly same situation as half a decade ago, when arriving to pitch dark forest meant arriving to hinterland with closed down farms.� Eeva Burman says. Nowadays, the biggest problems are on the pig-breeders and dairy farms, but cultivation don’t do any better. There are lots of farms for sale everyday and at the same time it is very
In thirty years time, bears have killed five cows from the remote farm. 37
difficult to find tillers who would want to continue farming. Those who find one, have their problems; farms that used to be relatively big a decade ago are nowadays considered to be so small, so financially unstable, that the banks don’t grant a loans for generational change. Farm-related loans constitute at least some 20 percent of Finnish banks loan portfolio. All this is happening at the same time with the historical economic sanctions towards agricultures biggest exporting destination, Russia. In that sense banks have their reasons to be reluctant to lend more money to the farmers.
Finding a way into the future
”I could not imagine where I would end when we started thirty years ago. Nowadays agriculture is in pretty terrible shambles… It is similar to scrap relief. It looks glossy and beautiful from the front, but behind it’s nothing. Plain work, plain job! Like a blank side of the scrap relief. ” Sighs Eeva Burman and continues. ”Still. Better to take care of cows than bankruptcy. It is more honorable… I’m not afraid of the future. I have that kind of a free sense in my soul, even it is… Silent here… It’s odd to be alone. My right hand and all, sometimes it is so hard that it is difficult even to put lid on it. Can you put lid on it?” It is almost silent. The distant crackle of ice when car drives over one of those thousands lakes. Lonesome swan shouts on the field. The occasional drainage water dripples it way into eaves. Voices are oddly strengthened. One and two, three droplets ripple into sheet of iron. It is a hard thing to live on the ranch, but so it is to leave. 38
�As long as possible, no fields for the saplings�, Eeva Burmans late husband used to say. 39
Comeback
Within seconds some people’s life change completely. To accept and live with these changes can be a big challenge. But what makes it much easier is to have a goal to work and aim for. by Theresa Albers
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“Life is still a life even with disability� Claudia Loesch, 27
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n December last year Claudia and her teammates were in their final phase of the build up for the upcoming skiing season. They just finished an exhausting training on a slope in Pitztal in the west of Austria and were on their way back to the hotel. The route was not long, so the whole team was going back in their wheelchairs. Since the road was going downhill all the way the team started racing back. It was just too tempting not to, because even without boosting they were going very fast. Fast enough to pass some cars which were on their way down as well. Claudia was on the first position chasing downhill, gripped by the rush of the speed. To avoid decreasing her pace by braking before a right bend she drifted on the left driving lane. Although you cannot see the contraflow at this part of the road it was usually not a problem using both driving lanes. Claudia and her teammates spend lots on the slope in Pitztal so they often did this race back to the hotel and know the way very well. At this time of the day the lifts are closed and everybody is going in the same direction. But on that day someone was going up there. Claudia gripped by the thrill of speed and using the same lane as the car could not brake fast enough to avoid a head-on collision. Her knee hit the headlights and she was thrown on the bonnet and rolled on to the road. Luckily in the circumstances Claudia was still wearing her race helmet and had her backpack on which protected her from any other serious injury. She managed to lift herself back in the wheelchair. Due to her handicap she did not feel any pain in her legs and how badly her knee was damaged. Bit by bit the rest of the team including the team doctor arrived at the site of the accident. He had one look at Claudia’s knee and told her that she was going to need surgery. As her knee hit the headlights her femur was pushed beyond her shank which caused a pretty complicated fracture and meant a premature end of her this year’s season.
SInce the age of 19 Claudia is living on her own.
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Austrian’s athelete of the year trophies.
Nearly every sunday Claudia and her friends team “the faboulous world of amnesia� are competing at a quiznight in Innsbruck. Weekly visit at Philipp, Physiotherapist.
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„If I could walk I would not have a job anymore“ Claudia Loesch, 27
More or less since she learned to walk she was skiing as well but at the age of five she, her siblings and mother had a car accident. Claudia did not break a single bone though a bruise on her back was pushing on her medulla and caused paraplegia. This of course changed her life. Nowadays and with a better first aid after the accident she might still have been able to feel her legs and walk. But Claudia has a very positive attitude and smiles when she says that she would lose her job if she could walk. And as a matter of fact Claudia is one of the best mono ski drivers of Austria and even of the whole world. Lots of her energy in her life she receives from the sport. Not long after the car accident she saw a sport broadcast about the Alpine Skiing World Championships for the Disabled that kindled her for the sport. She begged her parents to let her attend a course in sit-skiing. In this way she was soon back on the slope sliding now on one ski. An adjusted seat shell is covering her legs and the ski is attached to that shell. In her hands she holds two crutches with some smaller skis underneath them to gain some extra balance.
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Her first teachers were former race skiers and Claudia exposes to be a very talented from the beginning on. Soon she started competing as well and became one of the best disabled race skiers. At her first paralympic games 2006 in Torino she was only 18 years old but already won a bronze medal. Early on she started giving her sport a high priority and focussing and working hard for her goals. Since 2010 her sport became her profession. Now she is self-employed and earns enough to live from her passion. Meanwhile she won so many races and umpteen prices that it became difficult to find an empty place in her flat to put them. One wall is decorated with all the medals she won at the Paralympic games in Torino, Vancouver and Sochi. One shelf in her living room is occupied by trophies of world cup races on another shelf you find cups for the Austrian athlete of the year and even on the top shelves in her kitchen are more cups.
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Claudia breaking down barriers.
“I never felt very disabled, I just tried things until I manage to do them.� Claudia Loesch, 27
She still feels the traces of the last accident.
Nine years ago Claudia moved from a village close to Vienna 500km to the west to a city called Innsbruck. And since then she has lived there by herself. It did not take long before Claudia fall in love with the city. She lives in a new building which is adjusted to her needs. For example the stove is at a lower level so she can reach it from her wheelchair. However there are some higher cupboards in her kitchen which seems a bit too high to get to in a sitting position but due to her fitness Claudia always gets what she needs.
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Apart from her new home Innsbruck is a perfect spot to carry on skiing since it is surrounded by mountains. After only 30 minutes by car you can reach 6 different ski areas. This was for sure one main reason for moving there. The training facilities are almost perfect. Additionally to the mountain panorama is an olympic base in Innsbruck where Claudia gets professional encouragement. Physiotherapy, specific weight training and performance diagnostics. Everything that a sportswoman’s heart desires.
“It’s my job, it’s my life, it’s my everything” Claudia Loesch, 27
One sport is not enough.
Unfortunately you cannot slow down the run of the time and at some point the life within high-performance sport comes to an end. Furthermore is skiing also affected by global warming. The last two winters in Austria have already been very warm and they had less snow then the years before. The stilts of the ropeway are not totally covered by snow anymore and one of the glaciers Claudia remembers from her childhood is disappearing. To be able to find a job after her career as an athlete, Claudia is studying political science and law mainly in the summer semester. However she feels certain that she wants to keep on working in the fields of sports. Her favorite job would be working as an sport politician in Innsbruck. Preparing for her comeback.
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Homeless & determined by: Inuuteq Kriegel
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Klostertorvet is one of the places where Muuki meets his friends.
Being homeless sounds devastating for the majority, but there are persons who accepts the circumstances and live their lives without making a big deal out of it. Muuki consider himself as one of them.
Mogens Juliussen, better known as Muuki, is 22 years old and he consider himself homeless. His mother and his two sisters lives in Vejle in a two-bedroom apartment and even though he can stay with them, he would rather be in the bigger cities and either sleep in the streets, in shelters or in apartments of friends. Muuki was born and raised in Greenland, but moved to Denmark three years ago, following his family who moved a year before him.
Homeless by choice
Muuki is sitting in a couch a late afternoon at his mothers apartment. The mother is out for a few days, but his two little sisters, Pia and Mia, are sitting in the couch and watching a movie. The home is clean and everything seems to be in the right place. Other than a few furnitures and some smaller photos on
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the wall, there is not much. His sisters, who are twins, seemed to be the ones giving life into the home. They are friendly and are welcoming into their home. They are 19 years old and both of them are in job-training. Muuki fumbles around with his packs of different sorts of hash, while he talks to me. It was easy to see, that he often deals with hash, because it all seem as if it was a routine. He rolls up a joint and starts smoking it – and then say: “I can’t see myself without this and I’m going to live by it.” Muuki usually spends his days in diffrent towns and cities in Denmark. He sleeps where he can and know a lot of people from here and there. He is well-known in the groups of Greenlanders and people greet him nicely when they meet him. And when asked if he ever gets confronted on being a homeless Greenlander by anyone, he answers: “I’ve experienced, that people say: You’re a Greenlander and
you’re homeless – go away. For that I say, yes, I’m a Greenlander and I’m homeless, but my real home is in my heart, and in my heart are the ones I love and who love me. I don’t want to have a home, just to have a home.”
Footsteps
Muuki’s father passed away not long after they moved to Denmark, when his liver stopped working because of an excessive intake of alcohol. Muuki is not afraid to tell the story of his life and how his childhood consisted of family-members that were drinking and smoking hash. “I grew up, where I could see how they smoked it. I was a curious kid, so I’ve always been curious to see what the whole Muuki has more than 50 unpaid fines from riding trains without a ticket.
“... I don’t want to have a home, just to have a home.” - Muuki on being homeless
“If I don’t smoke this, I will end up getting crazy.”
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The streets of Vejle.
“I grew up, where I could see how they smoked it. I was a curious kid, so I’ve always been curious to see what the whole thing was about. But it wasn’t all happy memories, you know.” - Muuki on his childhood
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thing was about. But it wasn’t all happy memories, you know.” When asked, if he fears that he will follow his fathers footsteps, he answered: “I’m following my fathers footsteps by being homeless and gathering stories I can tell. But I know there is a line, where I can’t follow him anymore.” “My father drank too much vodka, so his liver stopped working and died.”
In groups
Greenlanders in Denmark are known to be in groups and there are few specific places in Aarhus, where a group of Greenlanders usually hang out. One place is Klostertorvet, which is the place where I met Muuki for the first time. Greenlanders in Klostertorvet are well-known in the Aarhus community, because they usually are easy to see, when they sit by the bus-stops and drink alcohol. “They know what they’re doing, but as long as they drink, they can’t see the difference between reality and imagination. They don’t want to face the reality and they don’t want to talk about the reality. They are running away from something.” says Muuki. Muuki doesn’t drink much, but that doesn’t stop him from spending time with the ones who does. “I hang out with these people and I’m pretty sure that I won’t leave them in the near future. I will always help them, as long as I am around them. But only from situation to situation, you know.” And he continues: “They’re my family. We Greenlanders know each other very well, and we all get along together and help each other. I can’t help them by doing stuff for them, but I can help them by listening to them and talking to them. On what they’re been through in their lives, and try to understand them.” Muuki does what he can, but he knows his own limits. “I can’t really do anything about their drinking habits, but I always make sure to tell them if they have crossed the line with
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“... They know what they’re doing – they know they’re drinkin. Some of them are doing this to kill themselves.”
- Muuki on some of his friends
The sisters relation to each other fills the home with calmness.
‘Agors’ has been a part of the family for the past three years. 54
something.”, says Muuki and explains that he still consider himself new in the group. He hasn’t experienced death in the groups in the three years he has known them, but he has a very clear view on the paths they’re walking on: “The thing is, the ones I meet and the ones I know on the streets are slowly committing suicide. They know what they’re doing – they know they’re drinking. Some of them are doing this to kill themselves.” It wasn’t hard for Muuki to get accepted in the group as their friend. He tells that Aarhus is a city that seems to fits his needs
and that he first came to Aarhus to hear the stories about his father and to visit her aunt, which is the fathers sister. I came to the group and told them who I was in family with and they quickly accepted me in. Even though the circumstances are tough unpredictable, he’s not planning to change the course of his life. He’s clear on his own situation. “I don’t really care if I should try to change the way I live. I don’t have a plan to change my life.”
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k r e u z b e r g t o s a n k t pa u l i
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modern revolution is about free urban access. From Berlin through Hamburg, alternative urban lifestyles are taking on a tone that seeks to break down systems of control, and destroy a perceived fascist regime. Rahul Dhankani hitched a ride to Berlin, dropped down to Liepzig and floated back up to Hamburg; he met some cool cats & dogs along the way, marched with St. Pauli supporters and partied at The Rote Flora.
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Occupied spaces have been at the centre of protest and conflict. Government supported gentrification has been on the rise and creative squats are fighting tooth and nail to survive.
The Rote Flora has been the focus of leftwing activism in Hamburg since it was first squatted in 1989 A former theatre in the Sternschanze neighbourhood of Hamburg, the flora has been at the center of protest and conflict as it stands as a monument to Germany’s anti-fascist movement. It’s proposed demolition, sale and re-restructuring have resulted in violent clashes between police and demonstrators. Originally one of the few undamaged buildings after the Second World War, The Rote Flora centre was squatted on the 1st November 1989 and over the years it has became an alternative cultural centre and a hub for political and artistic endeavours. It was used as a convergence space during the anti-G8 protests in Germany in 2007. In December 2013, the city government’s decision to redevelop the Rote Flora site sparked large, violent demonstrations, where police clashed with over 8000 protestors, leaving many injured and 19 people dead.
Several previously occupied structures have been slowly reclaimed in efforts to gentrify downtown Hamburg. Notably the eviction of the Esso buildings on the Reeperbahn, and very recently the Schanzenhofe Schanzenstraße 75. A few other occupied spaces in Hamburg are surviving, for the time being. The community Gängeviertel – which means “the alleys” – is still going strong. Over 200 people live in the in re-purposed old harbor worker houses, now recognized as historical buildings. Sitting in the midst of prime real estate, this community has come under threat several times, and has had to fight for its right to remain in the space. Revolutions and counter revolutions have flowed through Germany, dating back to 1848. The revolution of today includes a young demographic, fighting for urban access and freedom from control. Music, art and alternative lifestyles have been central to histroric revolutions of the past and those intruments remain an integral part of the movement today.
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The wide, tree-lined avenues of Berlin echo with a history of struggles. The signs along Karl Marx Allee mark the locations of the barri cades of 1848, the old path of the Wall is still traced across the cobblestone streets, and great hulking buildings draped with banners and graffiti testify to the survival of the autonomen. In the 80ties and early 90ties, neighborhoods like Kreuzberg were semi-autonomous zones, filled with immigrants, squatters, and punks, fighting to defend their streets against gentrification, neo-fascists, and police. Berlin is now heavily gentrified. The working class neighborhoods in the center have become trendy and expensive. There are fewer squats and most of the remaining ones have been legalized, though the fact that they still exist in any form is a direct testament to how forcefully they have been defended from eviction in years gone by. There still exists a liberated anti capitalist culture existing alongside the commercial one.
Berlins squats with junky front gates and punk-strewn courtyards are an aesthetic defense against gentrification. The bourgeois would not want to move in next door, and they certainly wouldn’t park their cars there.
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St. Pauli, located in the Hamburg-Mitte borough, is one of the 105 quarters of the city of Hamburg, Germany. Situated on the right bank of the Elbe river, the Landungsbrßcken is in the northern part of the port of Hamburg. Famous for it´s red light district and live theatres at the Reperbahn, St. Pauli has been made legendary in pop culture, most notably by the beatles.
A prominent symbol of St. Pauli, and the darling of Hamburg, is the football club FC St. Pauli. Using sport to contextualize a movement, FC St. Pauli brings the left movement together with an energy that is unparralleled. FC St. Pauli goes well beyond football, and although the team now plays in Germanys highest league, the club stays close to its roots of being a voice for the left. Every match in Hamburg is a feverent affair, followed by a march through the streets by thousands of supporters, chanting anti fascist slogans and waving the iconic skull and bones. These marches have often ended up becoming violent clashes with the police as the city government makes attempts to shut down the voice of the left and impose control on their movements.
Right: Radoslav Mikov, a street musician, and St. Pauli supporter. Bottom: Thomas Pauliverkaufer, a memeber of the St. Pauli club, is homeless and the club employs him on game days to help sell lanyards the stadium.
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Catherine Allie, 26
When one takes the decision to go against the standards set by the system, it takes time and sweat. We are KAL is a community formed by connecting farmers, nomads, weavers, designers, creative heads and culture lovers, supporting sustainable production and fair trade practices.
The success of this revolution is based on how we live our private lives, the things we do on an everday basis, the ways in which we protest when when we´re not protesting. Revolutions have been documented in art, music and writing, its heroes have been glorified and imortalised - Lenin, Trotsky, Mao, Che Guevara... But todays revolution is drastically different from those in the history books. The dynamics of power and resources between the people and state has shifted. Street fighting, barricades, and even small arms are no match for tanks, drones, and stealth bombers. If a state ever chose to unleash the full power of their technological and military resources on oppositional movements, those opposition movements would be overwhelmed in a matter of hours. Today, revolutionary politics must be resolutely non-violent — the goal of movements for fundamental social change can no longer be to overthrow the state by force, but to overwhelm the state’s legitimacy by collectively chosing to live in a manner that defies the standards set by the system of control. New conceptions of revolution are fundamental social changes led by a clear understanding of common life-interests achieved Left: Vivian 23, artist, Hamburg. 64
Frieder Bickhardt, 28
Leipzig’s young people are taking a stand and making an effort to twist the citys right wing history. Spaces such as the “projektwohung krudebude” are attempting to energise the scene by working with art and music. Currently working as a volunteer at a refugee camp in Leipzig, Frieder is involved photographer using his craft as his revolution. He is leading a alternative photography workshop at the projektwohung krudebude.
The subject of any revolution is a way of life. The object of any revolution is being able to sustain that way of life in a free and peaceful manner. Thats what we fight for. by means of peaceful democratic struggles and movements capable of winning by force of argument and not force of arms. The revolution that is needed today is not a revolution of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie — even using those nineteenth century terms sounds anachronistic — but a revolution of the common life-interest against the life-blind dynamics of globalized capitalism, social and religious facism, and geo-political exploitation. Individuals standing up and creating change within small communities are the heroes of todays revolution - a movement that is about sharing, sustainability, co-operation and coextistence. To all the lovers, painters of the sky and weavers of dreams; we will find our fortune, though it may not be the fortune we seek.
Right: Ian Bennet, Hamburg. 65
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Volunteer F volunteer fighter ighter 67
Above: Piotr Mielnik is exhausted after few fight. Everyday Piotr has up to 10-20 fights. Previous site: Owner of blue belt and owner of the purple belt are preparing to a first sparring on a training. Purple belt is the next one higher in hierarchy.
Passion for martial arts is a pure pleasure for Piotr Mielnik by Maciej Antkowiak
In the seaside town of Aarhus, second largest in Denmark we find the headquarter of a group of volunteer fighters who train in their sweat and blood to master martial arts. One of these guys is
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Piotr “Piotrus” Mielnik. Piotr Mielnik is training Jiu-jitsu almost everyday. He spends several hours of intensive workout on fighting with his partners, instructors and dummies. He was working as a manager in a night club in Aarhus, but now he is a trainer of Jiu-jitsu in a few cities where he is traveling by public transport. He is studying also and working in a Barber’s Shop as a hair stylist and personal trainer in a gym. If he has some few hours free during a day - he prefers to train by himself.
“I need to constantly develop myself”
“I’m reading a lot about how does the labour market in Denmark looks like. Who is needed, where you should live. I was wondering if my studies will give me what I need from it. I do not want to work like a horse for eight hours a day, from 8:00 to 16:00. Sit at the computer, or something like that. That’s not what life is about. I was always attracted to fashion and hairdressing” says Piotr. “I’m not going to learn hairdressing at school, but in a Barber Shop. In a Barber Shop you learn and work at the same time. This is what I like to do, I already have cut a lot of people’s hair. I was always saying that I can do it.”
Going for gold
Finding the right job is a long process for Piotr Mielnik. “But the most of what I wanted to do with my life, is to organize events. I can do it and I can hold events. I am very familiar with this, I always knew what to do. While I was for night club I have holded so many events, I met so many people. Plus
the finished Project Management course.” Right now Piotr is organizing a series of parties with well known DJs. These events are occurring always in a different, unique locations such as movie studios and private clubs. “I need to constantly develop myself”. “Now, after quitting my job as a manager in a club, I felt for the first time after few years how does it feels to have a free weekend”. Since quitting the night club he has more time for his great passion - martial arts. “We have developed the biggest martial arts center in whole Scandinavia”. It was a project which was developed by Piotr and his group of friends. They just needed bigger and better equipped place to train with. Almost everything up there was made with their’s volunteer work. Piotr along with his team is now preparing to win a gold medal in the Scandinavian Championship which will take place Copenhagen, capital of Denmark, on 16th and 17th of May this year.
Thomas and Piotr are shaking knuckles after each sparring to show respect. 69
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“Even after a very hard, intensive and tiring training I’m smiling and thinking about the next one - tomorrow’s training” Training is not work.
The ability to deal with stress helps a lot on the way of life as a Master of Matrial Arts. Piotr’s moments of relaxation are rare, but doing martial arts makes him happy and enables him to feel the joy of life he says. A few days ago, taking a change that he would not be missed for the last period of time, he went for a Easter break to visit his family and work as a Master of Ju-Jutsu in Poland. As he explains: “It wasn’t work, it was a pure pleasure for me” “I could show the new moves I have learned during this few years abroad to my old fiends from my hometown, is there something better than this?”.
Sacrificing his own time, a well paid career, avoiding all of these beers, alcoholic drinks, smoking cigars. Even after giving up eating delicious unhealthy snacks and not perfectly balanced food he is still very satisfied with the choice he made. “Now I’m feeling way better than before and I have energy for everything”. Then, late at night he comes back home, prepares all of his stuff for the next day, makes quick stretching and falls asleep in his rented apartment which is as quiet as all the rest of the town. “aEven after a very hard, intensive and tiring training I’m smiling and thinking about the next one - tomorrow’s training”.
Above: Every time the fighters need to agree who will be attacking and who will be defending. Left: Piotr is practicing throws on Thomas. After few minutes they will change sides and Piotr would be defending and Thomas will be attacking. Next side: During short sparring Piotr is practicing a grasp on the ground and defending against Thomas attack.
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Emanuele Occhipinti info@emanueleocchipinti.com
Theresa Albers
theresa.albers@gmx.de
Heba Khamis
hebakhamis88@gmail.com
Mikael Rydenfelt
mikael.rydenfelt@gmail.com
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Rahul Dhankani
info@lighthousecalcutta.com
Maciej Antkowiak
antkowiak.maciej@gmail.com
Inuuteq Kriegel
inuuteqkriegel@gmail.com
Noa City-Eliyahu noacte@gmail.com
Special thanks to Jesper Voldgaard, Lone Theils, Susanne Sommer and Henrik Meller. 75
Photo1 International Students Danish School of Media and Journalism Spring 2016