Dzhangal by photographer Gideon Mendel provides an alternative portrait of residents of the Jungle refugee camp in Calais, France, by presenting a series of photographs of discarded items such as toothbrushes, playing cards, worn-out trainers, teargas canisters and children's dolls. Between May and October 2016 Mendel travelled to Calais several times, tasked with teaching photography to refugees as part of a collaborative documentary project. He discovered, however, that many of the camp's residents were hostile towards the camera, fearing that identification could undermine their asylum claims and lead to deportation; they were sceptical that photography would help their situation, and Mendel came to share their reservations, feeling that excessive photographic coverage was potentially more exploitative than helpful. A photographer for over thirty years, he began to question whether photography was failing in the face of the enormity of the refugee crisis and reinforcing stereotypes. The book's title comes from a Pashto word, and the objects—photographed against a black background like forensic evidence or relics—stand in for the people, testifying to lives lived in transit and to the dignity of those who carried them.