Artist Bio

Abdi Roble was born in Mogadishu, Somalia on February 2, 1964. He grew up traveling with his father, a veterinarian, to provide free care to the animals of farmers. For most of his adult life in Somalia, Roble was a professional soccer player. Due to political turmoil and the stagnation of the economy, he left Somalia in 1986, both to improve his own life and to help support his family. In 1989, Roble arrived in the United States. At first he bussed tables and worked in hotels. Then, one day, he saw a camera at a flea market on Cleveland Avenue in Columbus, Ohio. The moment he looked through the lens, Abdi Roble knew he would be a photographer. By 1994, he had become a freelance photographer for the Columbus Dispatch and the Columbus Post. Shortly thereafter, his photographs appeared in the prestigious Leica View magazine. Soon, he went to work at Midwest Photo Exchange. Since then, he has started two photography groups, the “African American Photographers of North America” and the “Focus Group.” His exhibitions include One Month in Europe with Leica (2000), Leica Portrait of Cuba (2002), Japan: A Leica Perspective (2004), and most recently, the Somali Diaspora at the Riffe Gallery (2005), and at MAPP’S Coffee + Tea in Minneapolis, Minnesota (2005). Roble is also the recipient of the 2004 Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship. Abdi Roble is typical of Somali immigrants. He has relatives in Europe, Africa, Asia and America. His people are spread all over the world. He feels a responsibility to give them coherence through this photographic project that their homeland is not able to provide.

Somali Documentary Project

The mission of the Somali Documentary Project is to use photography to produce an archival record of the members of the Somali Diaspora while they are still engaging in the cultural practices of their homeland. We hope that this record will draw international attention to the plight of Somalia, educate Americans about these new immigrants, and provide Somalis with a photographic record of their early experience in this country. The violence and civil strife, which followed the ouster of the Siad Barre regime from the Somali Government in January of 1991, forced many people to leave their homeland for countries throughout the world. So the Somali people living in this country are relatively recent immigrants, who have barely begun the long process of adopting the language and cultural practices of their host country. By recording this moment of change, the Somali Documentary Project wants to capture an important transition in the cultural history of the Somali community. Hopefully, these photographs will help members of the Somali Diaspora maintain a sense of cultural identity. When they are traveling, the Somalis say, “If you lose your way, look back.” For the older generation, these photographs will offer a method of looking back toward cultural past, which will remind them of who they are. For the younger generation, they may be both a method of looking back but also of looking forward to a cultural future, a future in which they may remain in this country or return to the land from whence this Diaspora emanated, a land they might once again call home. www.somaliproject.org

The involvement of the Somali Documentary Project and Abdi Roble is made possible in partnership with Arts Midwest, the Ohio Arts Council and the International Education Center.