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Vilhelm Stokstad

Photographer
      
The Gravediggers of Raqqa
Location: Stockholm
Nationality: Swedish
Biography: My main interest lies in documentary photography. In 2013 i started working on the project  Voluntourism , investigating the phenomenon of mixing volunteer work with vacation. As the larger NGOs and more established volunteer agencies,... MORE
Public Story
The Gravediggers of Raqqa
Copyright Vilhelm Stokstad 2024
Date of Work May 2018 - May 2018
Updated Dec 2021
Location Raqqa, Syria
Topics Documentary, Dying/Death, Human Rights, Military, Militias, Peacekeeping, Photography, Photojournalism, Violence, War
Death is everywhere in Raqqa. Sometimes it lurks beneath the mountains of bomb-blasted rubble and pancaked buildings. Other times it peeks out from beneath the earth in the form of bones, hair and decomposing flesh the colour and texture of ancient dried parchment. Often it moves around the city, its stench drifting on the humid breeze, creeping into the nostrils and psyche when you least expect it.

More than anyone else here, the men of Raqqa’s Civil Defence Unit know where death can be found. For going on six long months now they have sought out its many locations and collected its gruesome detritus along the way.
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The Gravediggers of Raqqa by Vilhelm Stokstad
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