This project documents the upheaval of the Syrian War on a human rather than political level. My intention is to put a human face to this big black hole of violence we call war. I am less concerned with presenting ‘news images’, or trying to paint a geo-political picture; and more concerned with telling stories of those whose lives have been disrupted. . By telling these stories my hope is that we can connect with people embroiled in this bitter struggle halfway across the globe, and possibly feel some empathy for them and their suffering.
These images uphold the documentary and photojournalistic ethic of non-manipulation. No pixels have been added, subtracted, or moved; very little cropping has occurred; and only editorially acceptable toning has been applied in an attempt to balance the aesthetic vision with the documentary vision.
All images © Nish Nalbandian, courtesy of Polaris or Redux.
I have been following Syria’s war since the start; peaceful protesters hoping for a more free society gunned down in the streets. An escalating spiral of violence erupted into a brutal civil and sectarian conflict that continues even now. Four years have passed and hundreds of thousands have been killed. More than 10 million people have been displaced from their homes, and up to three million have fled to neighboring countries.
On battlefields and in makeshift camps inside Syria; in refugee camps in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan; and on the streets of wherever they can flee to, the people of Syria are facing an upheaval of historic proportions.
My project has been to document this upheaval on a human rather than political level. My intention is to put a human face to this big black hole of violence we call war. I am less concerned with presenting ‘news images’, or trying to paint a geo-political picture; and more concerned with telling stories of those whose lives have been disrupted. By telling these stories my hope is that we can connect with people embroiled in this bitter struggle halfway across the globe, and possibly feel some empathy for them and their suffering.
These images uphold the documentary and photojournalistic ethic of non-manipulation. No pixels have been added, subtracted, or moved; very little cropping has occurred; and only editorially acceptable toning has been applied in an attempt to balance the aesthetic vision with the documentary vision.
Nish Nalbandian
http://www.NishNalbandian.com
Nish@NishNalbandian.com
+1.720.933.5759
Make Comment/View Comments
