Private Story
Beyond dreams and hopes
More than a year ago I started working on a project about one individual Syrian family who lived in fear and
misery and now try to start a new life in Turkey after they have escaped the war at night.
At the time I started photographing, the Syrian civil conflict marked his third anniversary. Many million people
have fled from Syria since the beginning to war. The United Nations estimate that more than 220.000
people have been killed. Thousands of people have fled to Turkey, which borders Syria, in search for security,
especially women and children. The experiences and
conditions they were facing were among the painfullest I have ever seen.
For most people, Syria is an exotic and foreign country. In recent decades, most citizens of democratic countries
have not experienced war or any other related situations and do not know what fear of death is like.
Many of the Syrian people are afraid to speak about that what happened to them. Some of them still have
family members in Syria who could be at risk as a result of their conversation with journalists such as myself,
and the publication of their story. Turkiye Huseyin and her daughters allowed me to photograph and to film
them. Turkiye, Ruba, Fatma, Eye and Suhely had to flee Syria after the death of their husband and father. He
was a policeman, they feared they would be kidnapped and killed as well.
In this project I have tried to capture the personal consequences of a war that is only portrayed through the
impersonal and sensationalized news reporting. I want to investigate the story and the feelings of one individual
family. I am especially focused on women and children. I am fascinated by their brave and strength to
make their children feel safe and protected.
My motivation is to raise awareness for the impacts of this war and the miseries it has created for the Syrian
people. My aim is to keep returning, continuing to visit the family and build trust. There are many storys
about war but it doesn´t mean to stop to document it.
Unfortunately, the relevance of a piece like this will never fade, as the topic of war and flight will sadly always
be an issue.
Eye´s story is a powerful example of the wide reach of the horrors of war. The war has changed her personality,
and altered her life. Nightmares have been plaguing her ever since she saw with her own eyes how people
were beheaded in Aleppo on the street in broad daylight. She doesn"˜t want to speak with anyone. Eye sits alone
most of the time. After her oldest daughter already married in Mardin Fatma will be marriang a Turkish
man as well. She just turned 15 and always wanted to became a doctor before the war destroyed their dreams
and hopes.
I felt a strong need to document and record the misery of war and the way in which it destroys many lives of
families, and especially those of children and women. I want to show a personal story of this war, in contrast
to the often sensationalized mass media coverage.
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