Stories for change

"Stories for Change" is a photography exhibition on EU citizens' journeys, identity and belonging by Carolina Henriques and Linda Nagy.

In Stories for Change, Carolina Henriques and Linda Nagy explore new narratives and ways of storytelling involving EU citizens living in London. Complex and non-linear migration stories are captured through series of photographs seeking to understand lived experiences and identities by shifting the focus from portraits to objects, places and spaces that shape our stories and sense(s) of belonging in the UK and beyond. What one sees are visual fragments of life trajectories, amplified by extracts from interviews with participants discussing themes of journey, belonging, and identity.

The aim of their project is to better understand the lived experiences of EU citizens living in London and to represent them through objects, places and spaces. When you look at these stories, you won’t necessarily know the name, age, nationality, gender, ethnicity or occupation of participants. Instead, you will see their surroundings, the places they cherish, the things that have special meanings to them, and fragments of their life histories in their own words, which reveal more about who they are.

Through this method, Carolina and Linda seek to normalise migration and humanise migrants in order to divert from some of the existing narratives used in public discourse that often put migration and migrants into certain boxes and reduce them to stereotypes.

Carolina Henriques

Carolina Henriques is a Portuguese citizen of African descent passionate about the topics of migration and identity, who joined the3million to connect with other EU citizens and support shaping a more positive narrative about what we represent.

Working in the migration sector, she is keen to contribute to new human-centered narratives about borders, identity and belonging.

Linda Nagy

Linda Nagy is a Hungarian-German citizen based in London, with an interest in migrants’ rights and community-building.

As a trained sociologist and self-taught photographer, she is passionate about photography as social commentary and seeks to explore new ways of representing lived experiences.

Carolina and Linda met through the Stories for Change campaigning programme of the3million - which aims to have EU citizens’ voices heard directly by the media and policy makers, raising EU citizens’ issues and bringing our community together - and connected over their shared interest in migrant justice, passion for photography and experiences as immigrants in the UK that sparked the idea for this collaboration.