RESETTLED by Bryan Meltz

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Saida, 2011. 4x5.

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Saida, 2009. 4x5

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Arbai and Saida, 2006. 4x5

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Maynun, 2006. 4x5

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Arbai and Saida. 2006. 4x5

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Maynun, Saida and Jelani. 2009. 4x5

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Khadija, 2009. 4x5

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Maynun, Saida, and Rahma. 2010. 4x5

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Saida, 2008. 4x5

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Maynun and Said. 2006. 4x5

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Agan, 2006. 4x5

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Somali Family. 2005. 4x5

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Kaltuma, 2011. 4x5

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Said. 2006. 4x5

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Fatuma, 2006. 4x5

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Maynun, Saida and Rahma, 2008. 4x5

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Maynun, 2009. 4x5

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2006. 4x5

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Said, 2006. 4x5

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2006. 4x5

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Maynun, Saida, and Said. 2009. 4x5

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Khadija and Abdulahey, 2005.4x5

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Maynun 2007. 4x5

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Mother and daughter. 2006. 4x5

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Maynun and Rahma, 2008. 4x5

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Rahma, 2011. 4x5

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Khadija, 2009. 4x5

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Saida, 2008. 4x5

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Arbai and Rahma, 2010. 4x5

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Saida, 2008.

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Arbai and Rahma, 2008.

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Arbai during job training at Georgia State University. 2005.

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Rahma, 2009.

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Saida, 2009.

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Group of kids at Arbai's house. 2004.

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Notebook, 2004.

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Arbai and Maynun, 2004.

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2005.

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First day in America, taking a walk. 2004.

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Saida, 2010.

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Maynun, 2008.

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Said and Rahma, 2008.

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Saida, 2009.

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Maynun and Rahma, 2009.

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Said, 2008.

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Said, 2010.

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Abdulahey and Rahma, 2011.

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Arbai, Rahma, SAida and Maynun, 2009.

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2011.

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Abdulahey and Kaltuma, 2011.

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Arbai and Rahma, 2010.

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Maynun, 2009.

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Maynun, 2007.

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Saida, 2011.

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“Before the war our life was good, we had four little girls. I learned to farm when I was a girl in Somalia. We got separated when the war came to our home, the home where my parents were killed. We started running, and the older girls ran away on their own. It was too dangerous for me to go back. Bullets were flying. I was afraid of losing the two children I was carrying, may God help me. I carried them both out of Somalia…” ----Arbai Barre Abdi, 2004.

These images are glimpses into the last eight years that I’ve known Arbai and her family, eight years since we first met at the Atlanta airport when she and her four children first arrived in the United States after living in a refugee camp in Kenya. Arbai was part of a massive resettlement effort that began in 2004 when nearly13, 000 Somali Bantu refugees were relocated throughout the US. The Bantu, who were denied access to education and jobs while living in the refugee camps, were almost completely untouched by modern life. Few could read or write or speak English, and most had never seen a light switch, a telephone or a set of stairs. Over the past decade, Clarkston, a former railroad town outside of Atlanta, has been transformed into the Ellis Island of the South for refugees from every corner of the globe. It is estimated that 1 in 3 of Clarkston’s residents are immigrants and over sixty languages are now spoken in this small Southern town. Refugees come to Clarkston from a myriad of cultures suffering the effects of protracted civil wars and massive human suffering: Somalia, Sudan, Burma, Bosnia, Iraq, Vietnam, and Afghanistan just to name a few. Over 71% of the refugees in Clarkston are female, and all of those, as implied by their refugee status, are survivors of civil conflict, war, trauma, rape and/or genocide. And so in 2004, having traveled thousands of miles for the promise of a new start, Arbai arrived in Clarkston, Georgia filled with a tremendous hope for a better life, for herself and for her children. I met Arbai while working as a still photographer on a PBS documentary about refugee resettlement in America. The film wrapped in 2005 but I continued visiting Arbai and the family every weekend and now it’s 2011 and I still visit them almost every weekend. It’s difficult to put into words the relationship that’s developed over the years. It’s certainly one that goes far beyond photographer/subject. They have become family to me and I to them. Arbai has had three more daughters since first coming here in 2004, the youngest Medina was just born in December 2011. Arbai’s daughter Khadija, who was 18 when she arrived, now has four children, the youngest of which was born in November 2011. Watching these children grow up and being able to document them with portraits every year has become a lifelong personal project that has changed my life in ways I could have never imagined. Here’s our story so far. –Bryan Meltz, December 15, 2011

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Born in 1978 in Alexandria, Virginia, USA.

EDUCATION

BA Degree in Visual Journalism from The Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, CA. 1999-2003

Art History Major at Virginia Commonwealth University. Richmond, VA. 1997-1999.

CLIENTS AND PUBLICATIONS

Time Magazine, Rolling Stone, Financial Times Magazine, Wall Street Journal, The Fader, Vibe, Blender, XXL, The Hollywood Reporter, Mass Appeal, Rodale, Wal-Mart, The Carter Center and Emory University.

AWARDS AND EXHIBITIONS

AFTER: Images from Haiti. A yearlong rotating solo exhibition at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. 2011.

RESETTLED: Clarkston Georgia exhibition at Spruill Arts Center, part of Atlanta Celebrates Photography 2010.

Atlanta Celebrates Photography Portfolio Review, 2009.

Review Santa Fe participant, 2009, for RESETTLED

Documentary Award from the Center for Fine Art Photography, 2009 for RESETTLED

American Photo Magazine Images of the Year Award, 2007, for RESETTLED.

Composition Gallery Atlanta. RESETTLED: New Portraits by Bryan Meltz. September 9 October 29, 2006.

Composition Gallery Atlanta, February 11-August 8, 2006.

“Out of the South: Five Contemporary Photographers” Atlanta Photography Group, 2006

Yarka Vendrinska Memorial Scholarship Award for Documentary Photographers. 2005

International Photography Awards Honorable Mention 2004 and 2005

Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. 2004 Human Rights Week Exhibition.

2003 Brooks Institute of Photography Departmental Award and Student Achievement Award

Barnstorm Eddie Adams Workshop for Photojournalism. “September 11, New York City: One Year Later” 2002

AIDS Project Central Coast. 2002 World AIDS Day Exhibition. Santa Barbara, CA

Svitz Ozor Fine Arts Gallery. Santa Barbara, CA. 2002.

PROJECTS

“After: Images from Haiti” a new exhibition and book on the aftermath of the 2010 Haitian earthquake.

“Resettled: Clarkston, Georgia” a long-term project on refugee resettlement in Clarkston, GA. 2004-present.

“Goodbye Africa” four short documentary films for Channel Four (UK) directed by Barney Broomfield.

Still Photographer. 2005

“Rain in a Dry Land” feature length documentary film directed by Anne Makepeace for PBS and Sundance Channel. Still Photographer and Production Coordinator. 2004-2006.

“American Stories: HIV in the South”, a long-term personal project on the impact of HIV in the South. Photographer. 1999-2006.

“HIV over 50” Personal project on the life of a Vietnam Veteran in Santa Barbara, CA.

Photographer. 1999-2003

“Sala C: Life on a Cuban AIDS Ward” Photo Essay 2001. Published in the book, Cuba: Framing Time

AIDS Project Central Coast 2002 Latino HIV Prevention Campaign. Santa Barbara, CA. Photographer.

Science Museum of Virginia. Richmond, VA. Photojournalist/Production Assistant. 1996-1999

BRYAN MELTZ bryanmeltz@gmail.com www.bryanmeltz.com +1 404.578.4750