The Company of Strangers

In 2012, when London-born photographer Arteh Odjidja was visiting Moscow for an Ozwald Boateng fashion show, he met a young African man called Abdulay who had settled in the capital (via Portugal) after migrating from the west African island of São Tomé and Príncipe. ‘When in Russia, and an obvious foreigner, many people make you feel like you’re a stranger. People literally stare at you and your mind fills in the blanks as to what they’re thinking. You feel like that a lot, and I said to myself, if I’ve been here three days and feel like this, what must it be like for Abdulay who’s lived here for two years? That’s when I dived into his story,’ explains Arteh.

Galvanised by his meeting with Abdulay – and disturbed by the sweeping headlines in the media describing migrants entering Europe as swarms – on his return