Help Richard stay in London

As the dust has finally begun to settle on the past two years of harsh life lessons, I now feel able to tell my story in the hope that you can relate.

 

My name is Richard John; I am a Lebanese-Canadian photographer, filmmaker, and adventurer.

 

I was born in Vancouver to immigrant parents but grew up an only child on the outskirts of Beirut, always struggling with the ache of returning to Canada. Assassinations, explosions, and the 2006 Lebanon war were the backdrop of my teenage years. I witnessed and photographed the beginning of my country’s devastating collapse from my balcony.

 

At 19, I moved to Montreal. There, I wanted to double major in Photography and Cinema at Concordia. The week before submitting my application, my hard drive crashed, and my first portfolio vanished. Forced to rethink Montreal and my studies, I got a job working at the Apple Store.

 

I discovered espresso on my first trip to New York, and my life changed. I did the rounds of Montreal coffee shops as a full-time barista for the better part of 6 years, and another in Australia.

 

Eventually, I returned to Lebanon, where – alongside a catastrophic garbage crisis and major protests – I made new friends, returned to photography, film and had my first taste of motorcycles.

 

I began plotting my first motorcycle expedition to Norway. There, I hoped to collaborate with mental health researchers and professionals to establish a connection with Lebanon to conduct seminars at a time when the mental health sector was inaccessible in our country.

 

Sadly, my plans fell through after my motorcycle was stolen and two more hard drives crashed. So I moved back to Montreal.

 

I struggled to find jobs and flats for two years – moving and changing both more than a dozen times. Cold and lonely in the dead of Montreal winter, my severe depression worsened. I made two suicide attempts.

 

Then my father fell ill, and in 2019 I returned to Lebanon.

 

A revolution was in motion. More and more protests. The pandemic soon followed, causing economic collapse. Then came the cataclysmic Beirut explosion. We lost our city; I lost friends, my friends lost family, I lost my savings, another hard drive and my last laptop; I officially had no more photos.

 

Somehow we rebuilt.

 

I thought I’d hit rock bottom. Then, on a routine commute between NGOs, I sustained a broken collarbone and wrist in a motorcycle crash and was hospitalised with multiple surgeries as a result. The ample time in recovery allowed me to plan and research my motorcycle expedition.

Beirut to Berlin is my solo motorcycle expedition to produce a series of photographs, short documentaries and oral histories, chronicling and documenting the effects of migration on displaced populations' mental health following the migration path and stories from the Levant to connect with the local Levantine communities in Istanbul, Athens, Zagreb, Graz, Vienna, Munich and Hamburg, all the way to Berlin.

As a result of all your help, in 2021, I started sourcing equipment and reassembling my motorcycle. As the situation in Lebanon continued to spiral into chaos, I persistently approached organisations and brands for support, seeking producers and applying for film funds, all the while caring for my dying mother.

 

Then my mother passed away. I faced a hopeless, uncertain and unsustainable future. I had missed my chances for international grants and had run out of my finances.

 

Luckily, and with the generous help of a dear friend, I escaped the hardships of Lebanon and relocated to London. Here, I was able to properly grieve the loss of my mother, my country, and – in some part – myself. I was allowed the space to recover from the depression I had battled for years. I have fallen in love with this city and its people. Likewise, I have met some fascinating individuals and artists. I genuinely feel comfortable and welcomed for the first time after being repeatedly displaced from the two countries that I can call home.

 

Now, I can foresee my immediate future. I want to seek work in London whilst I continue searching for a producer, amassing the funds for my expedition. For that, I must acquire a visa.

 

For me to stay in London, I must raise money for the following expenses:

 

£450 – for the flight to Montreal,

£500 – for an expedited application for the T5 visa,

£500 – for the NHS surcharge,

£2,750 – a necessary proof of savings to the UK Government,

£2,650 – to buy a laptop and hard drives to help me continue my work on my expedition.