Six months into a project documenting the lives of Sydney's Sudanese refugee community, photographer D-Mo Zajac had not taken a single picture.
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She wanted first to earn their trust.
"They thought I was from the immigration office," the Poland-born photographer laughs now, almost a decade after she encountered two, tall men from Sudan in a sea of white faces at a suburban Sydney anti-racism rally.
"In the middle of the demonstration, I saw these two black people. There were only two black people amongst white people," Zajac said.
Even as a young child, she had been moved to tears by photographs of women, men and children suffering in impoverished and war-torn nations around the globe, she said.
Here was an opportunity to help tell some of their stories.
She approached the men and asked if she could photograph them. And so began a project to which she has already committed nearly five years of her life.
Only having a child and working overseas put the project on hold.
"I was invited to their houses, to cook with them, to sing with them," said Zajac, who is based in Sydney.
Now she plans to reconnect with her subjects with a view to putting together a book chronicling their new lives half a world away from their birthplace.
Most of the Sudanese who have settled in Australia are Christians from southern Sudan, victims of a bloody civil war lasting more than two decades. South Sudan finally gained independence from Sudan in 2011.
According to the 2011 census, there were almost 19,400 Sudan-born people in Australia.
More than 5600 were in NSW. Since the turn of the century, the vast majority of Sudanese people have entered the country under the humanitarian program.
By the time Zajac met them in western Sydney, where many have settled, some had already been in the country for a number of years, others just a few weeks. But they had spent up to 15 years in refugee camps before making the journey to Australia.
"They spent 10 or 15 years over there just to get their papers," Zajac said.
"All of them, they live with peace in mind. But there's the scar of leaving it [the violence] behind."
She said she had met one man whose siblings and parents had been shot in front of him.
"They're losing their parents, they're losing their kids," she said.
"Every human being has a story to tell and it's incredible for me. It was a wake-up call.
"We have to know what's going on."
But she also hopes her photographs provide hope.
"I learned that light always trumps darkness. It always has, and it always will," she said.
