The photo book SUSPENSION takes us inside a ‘Casa Famiglia’, an institution where young immigrant boys are welcomed and nurtured. They arrive after long and harsh journeys, often taking years, fleeing from their conflicted and war-torn home countries. Violence tore up their families and roots, and having left all behind in search of a better life, some of them found the Casa Famiglia. However, this safe haven is only temporary: when they turn 18, they’ll have to leave again.

Deprit gives us a glimpse of their everyday life ‘with respect and softness’, as curator Arianne Rinaldo notes. ’It is like as if he is standing with them, capturing their intimate moments. No intrusion, no set up, no posing. Nothing special: the normal proceedings of adolescence.’ In doing so, we perceive ‘stillness, the wait, the suspended hope, the uncertain future.’ On the one hand, I thought it was a very topical story regarding a controversial issue’ says Deprit, reflecting on the series. ‘On the other, I was curious about the idea of an unusual family environment and the dynamics which could be created in such a situation, as well as the effects on the life of an adolescent.

The book shows the full series and includes a ‘dossier’ giving additional context, by means of an essay by renowned photo editor and curator Arianne Rinaldo, and an interview with photographer Alvaro Deprit, exploring the subject of immigration and the creation of this series in particular.