Nawroz

Researching for my photo project ‘Reflections on Racism’, I decided to focus my attention on the Citizens of the World Choir, a choir of refugees based in Greenwich. That is how I met Nawroz Oramarî, one of the choir singers. From the first interview and photoshoot, I found his life, voice, and energy fascinating. I decided to create a project and a photo book all around him.

I soon realised that Nawroz was suffering from a deep depression and that singing was his only excitement in life.

Nawroz is a Kurdish singer who used to be a freedom fighter for Kurdistan. He has been arrested, tortured, and persecuted, and he found refuge in London 30 years ago.
During the Iraq war, he worked as a translator for the British Army in harsh conditions and constant fear. It was heart wrenching for him to see the devastations in Mosul, where he had lived as a teenager.

Despite these painful memories, his voice is full of passion, emotions, and strength. He is an entirely different person when he sings. And, as he said it so eloquently:

“If you are a singer, you have extra power. You can talk with thousands of people and have an influence, emotionally, on thousands of people, and change their minds, their hearts. I mean, our job is to deal with the hearts because we are not talking about logics. It’s hearts. It’s emotional. It’s feelings. We talk about the feelings of people.”

May Nawroz’s voice resonate for many more years.