OFF THE MAP - Transnistria
Hanna Jarzabek
To preserve their Russian language and identity, the inhabitants of the narrow region sandwiched between the Dniester River and the Ukraine declared in 1990 their independence. Two years later, they had to defend with weapons what they now consider their country. From the inside, Transnistria has all the characteristics of a state: government, currency, passport, borders and armed forces. However for the outside world they do not exist as the International Community do not recognize their independence.
How do you live in a place that does not exist on any map of the world? What is really the price of being a pariah within the International Community? These questions served as a starting point for my project.
The unilateral separation from Moldova, created a kind of bubble, where non-recognition and legal limbo allow opaque and doubtful business, opening the way to poverty and inequality. Today the economic and political life of the region is practically governed by the oligarchs. The lack of recognition marks everyday life down to the smallest details and if until now Transnistria has been able to maintain itself it is thanks to the Russian economic support.
Transnistrians in general consider themselves as patriots and claim to love their country. However, the lack of work, isolation and the difficult economic situation push many to emigrate. Little by little the region is depopulating, leaving behind children and grandparents. For those who stay, the identity problem begins to take a back seat. In the words of some of the interviewees: “Identity does not fill your stomach”.
Hanna Jarzabek (1976, Poland). She finished a Master degree in Political Science and worked on refugee reports for UN agencies such as UNRWA and UNCTAD. She developed her passion for photography while traveling (the Gaza Strip, Iran, Philippines).
Since 2008 she is based in Spain where she works as a freelance photojournalist, combining her personal projects with the teaching of photography. She has published in BuzzFeed News, El Pais, XL Semanal, L'Obs, Equal Times, 5W magazine, Interviú, El Periódico de Cataluña, 7k magazine, Gazeta Wyborcza and Polityka among others.
Her projects address discrimination and societal dysfunctions in western society. She also works on youth radicalization and the raise of right-wing movements in Europe. Lately she has started to investigate the construction of national identity in post-Soviet regions in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
She has won different awards, such as the Third Prize in POY Latam 2015 (Mexico); she has been awarded with the Grant Programa Crisálidas Signo Editores Grant 2019 (Spain), with a Helge Humelvoll Scholarship (USA 2017) and with the “Photojournalism Grant 2015” (GrisArt International School of Photography, Barcelona), among others.
Finalist of the Grand Press Photo 2019 and 2012 in Poland and of the 19th FotoPres la Ciaxa (2013); she was also nominated in 2018 and 2017 Edition of Photography Magazine Grant (London). She has participated in festivals such as PhotOn 2019 and 2018 (Spain), Imaginaria 2019 (Spain), UCL Festival of Culture in London (2017), FOTONOVIEMBRE Tenerife (2015) and the VIII Biennal de Xavier Miserachs (2014) among others.