Hassan: stick to your goals
Hassan: stick to your goals
Award-winning photographer, electrical engineering student, community mentor, and world traveller is quite an impressive list of accomplishments for any 26 year old. Take into account that just 10 years ago that individual arrived in London by himself, speaking no English, forced to move to a new society 2500 miles from home, and impressive seems too minor a word to describe such a feat.
Meet Hassan Al Mousaoy. Hassan first came to Britain in 2006 as an asylum seeker from Iraq. Despite the successful life he has since created for himself, the transition was not easy. Leaving a war-torn country behind, he arrived in London feeling stressed and scared. “For 3 weeks, I didn’t see any other people. You know, I would just go outside for 2 minutes then return because I didn’t want to get lost. I watched the TV but didn’t know what they were saying.” Reflective of Hassan’s character however, it was just a matter of time before he came to terms with his new home and decided, “you know what, I’m living here. Now is the time to force myself to learn the language because I’m not going to wait for someone to interpret for me what I want and what I need.”
Hassan began attending school and joined a community group in East London called Youth Central. Here he was able to make friends and begin integrating more into the community. It is also how he came into contact with the organisation ‘PhotoVoice’, who introduced him to one very important friend in particular; the camera. Through his photos, Hassan found a purpose and a place for himself in the city; “Photography helped me to make friends, gave me the confidence to travel around the city, I could express myself with the camera. When I have an image to tell you my story, you will understand.”
Ever since, Hassan’s photographic voice has been amplified throughout the community through a multitude of impressive projects. Following his initial work with ‘PhotoVoice,’ Hassan worked on the project ‘the Newlander’s Book,’ which was shown on display at Tate Modern. The exhibit featured photographs from the daily lives of people newly arrived in the UK, including Hassan and 14 others. Hassan was also one of the photographers for the ‘World in London’ project, which, in sync with the 2012 London Olympics, invited 205 photographers to help display the multi-culturalism of London by creating portraits of citizens who were migrants in the UK.
Hassan is perhaps most proud of the role he has taken as a teacher and mentor to youth both in the UK and Iraq, helping them to find their voices through photography and the arts. Through the first project he was able to run himself, enabled by a 15,000 pound grant he received from ‘The Big Idea Project,’ Hassan was able to teach photography to young migrants in the UK, as well as travel back to Iraq for fifty days to teach students there. The final project, entitled ‘My Life in Photos,’ featured his students’ work from the two countries, offering the opportunity to view the daily lives for young people in Iraq and the UK side by side.
Hassan reflects upon one of the most rewarding aspects of this project as being the visible effect on the students. A smile warms his face as he recalls the feedback he received from one of the Iraqi student’s mothers telling him, “You know, I’ve never seen my daughter happy like this before”. I press on about this remark, asking if photography is typically considered an art form in Iraq. He shakes his head and quickly explains, “You don’t have the time and the freedom to be really creative, and yet some people are so creative. They are just not being given a chance to shine. When you come to Europe, you are just given that opportunity… There are always people to encourage you and push you forward.” Though speaking of those who supported him, it is evident that Hassan has clearly managed to serve exactly this encouraging role for the young people he works with.
He has since been involved with teaching photography to young people at non-profit organization ‘The Young Roots,’ as well as during the summers at his university. Most recently, Hassan worked with the Ovalhouse theatre as part of ‘The Paper Project,’ a production which focuses on the stories of refugees from various countries.
Despite the impact of these projects, photography is not the sole focus of Hassan’s energy. With a passion to learn and take advantage of the opportunities available to him, he is also a full time student at London South Bank University, pursuing a degree in electrical engineering. Reaching this point was no easy task. In his first few months here, he explains how those he lived with went straight to work, and would tell him, “go work, earn some money, don’t waste your time with school.” For 2 years, Hassan struggled with the pressure to give up his educational pursuits and instead turn to a job where he would earn fast money. I ask him how he managed to prevent this negativity from getting to him. While it was very difficult to maintain focus during this time, he explains, “I want to educate myself. Money can come and go, but knowledge, opportunities like this one, won’t come again.”
Today, Hassan’s commitment to his education has clearly paid off. Now in his final year of university, he has studied abroad in Denmark as well as formed a network of world-wide friends. “I’m having a good life. I’m enjoying it so much. I travelled to up to 12 countries in 2013,” he tells me. I ask him if he has encountered a favourite place throughout these travels. He considers this for a second before describing Bergen, Norway. A city surrounded by seven mountains, “when it snows, it’s completely white. It’s very beautiful.”
The visual he describes is testament in itself to just how far Hassan has come. From being afraid to leave his London apartment to now roaming mountainous cities in foreign countries, Hassan’s story is illustrative of what one can accomplish by not giving up on your own goals in the face of a challenging circumstances.