Missing Member, Louise Amelie
Art Direction, Book Design, 2023
What does migration mean for those who are left behind? Missing Member is a book about a photo-documentary journey to Kyrgyzstan. Louise Amelie's documentary series is an artistic exploration of the global phenomenon of migration and its many facets, which are often ignored in the discourse on migration policy in this country. Migration has existed since the beginning of human history and will always take place. Nevertheless, migration is presented as a deviation, while the existence of nation-state borders is hardly questioned.
Even if Kyrgyzstan nestles inconspicuously on the globe next to Kazakhstan and China, on the ground the vastness and heights of the mountainous region seem endless. In contrast to the natural beauty, huge prefabricated housing estates shoot up in the capital city of Bishkek. Here lives a young and alert population that, despite all the adversities of post-Soviet reality, confidently faces the world.
In a collection of portraying texts and photographs that foreground the essence of the people, the book expresses solidarity and empathy for the fact that migration can mean an opportunity and the painful loss of a beloved missing member at the same time.
Missing Member was awarded as "Photobook Winner" at Belfast Photo Festival 2024 and longlisted by Die Schönsten Deutschen Bücher 2024.
