A recent project of Romanian photographer Horia Manolache is based on the question, ‘Who are we?’ In the series, the artist has taken photo portraits based on paintings of European rulers, but he has swapped their faces and figures with those of refugees living in Romania.

‘With this project I tried to challenge the way people are seeing refugees’, stated Manolache. Thus, he makes refugees visible but also raises the question of ‘what defines us as Europeans and who decides this categorisation’. History could have been different, and so could our personal stories.

The idea for the project started from the observation that people were quick to label refugees as terrorists, although refugees make up less than 0.03% of Romania’s population. Through the portraits, Manolache transforms them into historical figures and challenges the xenophobic attitudes of people by investing, metaphorically, the refugees with power.

The project was co-financed by the Administration of National Cultural Fund. 

See the portraits