Swiss photographer Gabriel Hill was thinking of the one question every refugee has to ask themselves before fleeing their home country: “What’s the most important item I just can’t leave behind?”
In this photo-essay, Hill’s photographs depicts refugees along with the items they couldn’t part with — from the Syrian woman who took her pet turtle all the way to Germany to the girl who migrated to Greece with her beloved cat.
As Rohulla, 23, who fled Afghanistan in 2010 says, ”When I left, I couldn’t take anything with me except the clothes I was wearing. I was very little when my father was killed, so I hardly have any memories of him. He always wore a golden necklace and after he died, my mother gave it to me. I came to Switzerland by myself and this necklace is everything I have from my family and my homeland. It means the world to me – it makes me feel like I’m not alone, like my father is always with me.”
