'Something that is unfolding in front of my eyes'
Sergey Ponomarev: “It's kind of a matter of their reception of you. That you are not gonna be the journalist who just arrived, made several clicks for two hours, and then left and slept in his fancy hotel and they continue to stay in the mud, you know?
Because then for those journalists people wouldn't tell their stories. They would probably say something basic but if you want to bring a real story, you need to put yourself on the same level and in the same circumstances with others.
We found a family and we introduced ourselves and said like, we want to follow you, we will not help you in any way, like we will not get you better access or money or push you through the kind of police line, so we will just follow you. But if you don't mind and can we allow us and, and then we could not go across the border just at any illegal place that they were crossing so we had to stop at some point to go through official checking, get our stamps and passports, find them back with the, with the text.
That's why we had a translator with us. So, she was kind of in contact with that family and then we pushed forward. I worked for five months on that story and I had a variety of feelings from, from being sorry to being angry because not, not all of them behaved properly, but I understood that those people had to flee their homes and that like they carry whatever they able to carry on their backs, and so. But on the other hand, at some point I did not understood why they want to go like, why they want to cross several countries and to get to certain country, for example. What's that? Why exactly this country for example, so?
But then again, that's my personal questions and I can debate with myself about that. But there is something that is unfolding in front of my eyes, and that's what I should not interfere with my personal feelings, you know?”
Photographer Sergey Ponomarev won 2016's Pulitzer Prize for his work, along with colleagues from the New York Times, in documenting the European refugee crisis.
Over the course of five months he followed refugees across Europe, recording their border crossings and struggles to reach their destinations.
His approach to the project, called The Exodus emphasised the human struggleof the refugees, who were fleeing from Syria and other countries.
'It's kind of a matter of their reception of you, that you are not going to be the journalist who just arrived, made several clicks for two hours and then left and slept in his fancy hotel and they continue to stay in the mud,' he said.
'You know because for those journalists people wouldn't tell their stories, they would probably say something basic but if you want to bring a real story, you need to put yourself on the same level and in the same circumstances with others.'
The Exodus was on display at IWM North in 2018, as part of IWM's Syria: A Conflict Explored, a season of exhibitions and events reflecting upon the ongoing conflict in Syria.
