Provisional Life

Provisional Life is a photobook about people who had to flee their homeland and live in a refugee home in Germany. The pictures are taken over a period of three years and are portraits of the inhabitants, photographs of their daily life and the rooms they lived in. The living space allocated to an individual or family is limited and the furniture is standardized. To be able to feel at home the inhabitants are creative in arranging their surroundings to utilize the space well and to add colour, which they are used to from their home country.
Being a refugee and living in a refugee home puts limitations on the daily life, which is determined by regulations and characterized by endlessly waiting and hoping for a residence permit. The pictures show how this influences the activities and dispositions of the adults, but it has less impact on the children.
Media reports often talk about refugees as a homogenous group of people, which they are not. What they share is that they took a decision to go on a journey in search of safety and a better life and that demands courage and strength.
The design of the book is by SYB – Sybren Kuiper and the text was written by Prof. Fritz B. Simon.
Rannveig Einarsdóttir comes from Iceland and has been living in Berlin for many years. She studied Social Psychology at the LSE in London and has additional training as a mediator. After working as the manager of an adult education institute, she decided to turn to photography, a long time interest of hers. She learned at Neue Schule für Fotografie in Berlin as well as taking courses at e.g. Gilberto Bosques VHS Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg to further her knowledge and competence. Photography is now her main activity, her subjects and work is under influence of her studies as a Social Psychologist.