Rohingya News Agency‏ ‏‎–(Myanmar Times):‎ The walls of the space where Greg Constantine’s photo documen-tary “Exiled to Nowhere” is on display are peeling and streaked with grime.

Constantine said the abandoned Bangkok bank had lain empty for about 15 years until he decided to mount the show. Although it appears dilapidated, most of the people featured in the American photographer’s work would probably be glad of such solid shelter.

His subjects are a stateless people. Denied citizenship by the Myanmar government, they have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh in the hope of avoiding persecution or remained living in a state of apartheid within Myanmar.

They call themselves Rohingya while the government insists they should be called Bengalis – denying them a name as well as basic human rights.

Over eight years, Constantine recorded their lives. Initially, he photographed those living as refugees in Bangladesh. When communal violence broke out in northern Rakhine State in 2012, leaving over 140,000 people homeless, he photographed life in the IDP camps and ghettos where some were trapped.

The black and white images – displayed without frames, just stapled to wooden bars nailed to the walls – depict lives made in tents and make-shift shelters. Many of his subjects appear almost as silhouettes, perhaps fitting for a people who exist mostly in the shadows.

“Exiled to Nowhere” is part of a wider project called “Nowhere People” in which Constantine has recorded the lives of stateless people across the world.

Describing himself as a self-taught photographer, his website says “Nowhere People” aims to give “a small voice” to some of the 15 million people worldwide that the United Nations estimates to have no recognised nationality and no state.

As a mix of Thai and foreign visitors wandered the exhibition and stopped to ask Constantine questions, he told The Myanmar Times that the subjects of “Exiled to Nowhere” were suffering “the most extreme” consequences of statelessness he has ever witnessed.

“I was so shocked in 2006 at the condition of the Rohingya living in Bangladesh and the stories they were telling me, and these people weren’t known about [in the outside world],” Constantine said.

“For me the situation was so complex, and it was really important to be able to tell it responsibly. Going back each time [to take more images] has exposed different threads over the years.”

The photographs show people in different situations: Children play in filth-ridden pathways, families live in cramped quarters, and men and women try to escape to a better life by boat only to be turned back.

There are portraits too, of men, women and children with haunted eyes. They are not entirely hopeless but know they are without a platform of their own and must rely on others to tell their tale.

“I feel a huge sense of responsibility to the people,” Constantine said.

“[Their stories] need to be told. People need to see them and need to be aware and to ask questions.”

The exhibition has already been shown in London, Washington, Canberra, Phnom Penh and Brussels, all capitals where influential policymakers are based. Constantine said he chose those cities because he thought his works would be most effective at awareness-raising there.

He added that he would like to bring the exhibition to Yangon at some point, but he said that, given current tensions within Myanmar, now is not the best time.

“I worry that in Yangon various [groups] might exploit it in a way it was not intended for and take it out of context.”

The fears of the photographer, who has won numerous prizes for his work including awards from Pictures of the Year International, Prix de la Photographie Paris, and the International Photography Awards, are well-founded. But the Yangon public will, for the time being at least, miss out on a valuable insight into the reality of a stateless existence.

“Exiled to Nowhere” can be seen at 171 Surawong Bangkok until 6:30pm on March 23. For more information about Greg Constantine and “Nowhere People” see www.nowherepeople.org.