They've made us ghosts

Calais is a bottleneck for refugees in Europe. People from Afghanistan, Iran, Eritrea, Somalia, Syria, and elsewhere find themselves stranded in the French port on their way to the United Kingdom, stopped by a complex border control regime comprising surveillance systems, fences, and militaristic security. Christoph Oeschger captures the perspectives and realities of border guards and refugees in this new series, exploring the layers of violence embedded there: displacement, political architecture, statistics, and so on. The emptiness of the places he photographs and the absence of dramatic scenes act as an echo chamber, reflecting the sense of void that comes with enforced waiting.