Daniel Tchetchik tells a part of the story of the migrants looking for a haven in Europe through the years. He does it not with sensational photos of refugees jumping from overcrowded boats on the Mediterranean shores but instead with a silent exploration of those shores and that sea which is befriending and terrifying at the same time.

Dark Waters is a visual narrative about those boats that never touch the shore and get lost somewhere deep in the sea, and also about those shores that were adapted to defend against everyone who dared to step on them.

Migrant processes towards Europe that began in the 1990s are ongoing, and their continuance produces a statistic that controls the narrative on crises. Daniel Tchetchik chooses his own interpretation of this narrative, focusing on the dark waters as a desperate path to hope that could be materialized in an opportunity or could stay forever somewhere in the sea. 

Daniel Tchetchik (1975) is an Israeli photographer and a part of the photography team in one of the most prominent newspapers in Israel – Haaretz. He is editor-in-chief of the photography blog of the newspaper. He has been nominated twice for the Prix Pictet. Tchetchik’s works are shown in galleries worldwide, and his photographs are part of some major museums’ collections.

Tchetchik works with a film that often has been exposed to radiation and kept in harmful conditions in order to uncover features of both the photographic matter itself and the subjects in the works.

The project is implemented as part of the program of the State Institute for Culture under the Fund for Bilateral Relations of the EEA Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Fund.

Daniel Tchetchik's visit to Bulgaria is made possible by NCF' project 'Mobility Memento Vivere'.