A Tent City In An Abandoned Airport And Other Collateral Damages, is an ongoing project on the refugee crisis. It is an attempt of humanizing and putting a face to the people who where forced to leave their homes and flee for their lives. In December I traveled to Lesvos for 10 days to interview and photograph the Syrian refugees. Every morning more than 1,000 Syrian, Afghan and Iraqi refugees where arriving in inflatable boats to the island. The project is comprised of images depicting refugee arrivals but also images of the daily life in the camp facilities.
A Tent City In An Abandoned Airport And Other Collateral Damages, continues in the Elliniko camp in Athens, Greece, where Afghan refugees are trapped there the past 6-7months.
In this body of work I am focusing on a young Afghan girl named Parisa,13 and her family's experience in the camp.
Elliniko is no ordinary refugee camp. It was once the Olympic Airways central airport in Athens. The refugees live in a tent city in the abandoned airport, beneath signs promising Departures and Arrivals. No one wants to stay but no one can leave. The airport works as an ironic metaphor for the trapped and transitory nature of the refugees.