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| 'I've seen these children grow up': the stories behind photographs of refugees | 'I've seen these children grow up': the stories behind photographs of refugees |
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| Children are the most affected by any conflict, so in my coverage of refugees I mostly focus on children. In this image, Syrian refugee children attend a class at a makeshift school near the Syrian border on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan, in August 2015. Children inside these camps attend classes to learn the maximum possible with the minimum resources. | Children are the most affected by any conflict, so in my coverage of refugees I mostly focus on children. In this image, Syrian refugee children attend a class at a makeshift school near the Syrian border on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan, in August 2015. Children inside these camps attend classes to learn the maximum possible with the minimum resources. |
| This is Zubaida Faisal, a Syrian refugee girl who I photographed skipping in an informal settlement near the Syrian border [with Jordan] in July 2015. In my photography, I like to look for hope through the rubble. | |
| If you go through any camp or any story there are two sides – there is the side where you show the dirt, you show the poverty, and there is the side that shows how life goes on. So I point my camera and I try to show how life doesn’t stop, even in the middle of these difficult circumstances. | If you go through any camp or any story there are two sides – there is the side where you show the dirt, you show the poverty, and there is the side that shows how life goes on. So I point my camera and I try to show how life doesn’t stop, even in the middle of these difficult circumstances. |
| On this day in November 2015, there was news that only Afghans, Syrians and Iraqis were allowed to cross the border to keep on their journey to Europe, so people of other nationalities were stranded on the Greek-Macedonian border. These people were stranded for weeks. They lost hope, they felt powerless. | On this day in November 2015, there was news that only Afghans, Syrians and Iraqis were allowed to cross the border to keep on their journey to Europe, so people of other nationalities were stranded on the Greek-Macedonian border. These people were stranded for weeks. They lost hope, they felt powerless. |
| There was this man who just collapsed – he couldn’t take it any more. He was approached by another migrant who embraced him and gave him comfort and calmed him down. All this man needed was to feel safe, to feel part of the pack. | There was this man who just collapsed – he couldn’t take it any more. He was approached by another migrant who embraced him and gave him comfort and calmed him down. All this man needed was to feel safe, to feel part of the pack. |
| This picture is one of several portraits of Afghan refugee children that I photographed in January 2014. I decided to put a name and an age to every child I photographed. Instead of writing ‘an Afghan refugee’, I started presenting them by their names. This girl is laiba Hazrat. She’s six years old. She’s an Afghan refugee who lives in a slum in Pakistan with her family. | This picture is one of several portraits of Afghan refugee children that I photographed in January 2014. I decided to put a name and an age to every child I photographed. Instead of writing ‘an Afghan refugee’, I started presenting them by their names. This girl is laiba Hazrat. She’s six years old. She’s an Afghan refugee who lives in a slum in Pakistan with her family. |
| It’s just a small introduction, but I think her haunting beauty, which is mixed with the hard environment, makes you as an audience think: “I wonder what life could be like through the eyes of an Afghan child.” | It’s just a small introduction, but I think her haunting beauty, which is mixed with the hard environment, makes you as an audience think: “I wonder what life could be like through the eyes of an Afghan child.” |
| I always noticed that in very hard conditions families stick together. Here, a refugee woman from Iraq holds her child shortly after arriving on the Greek island of Lesbos in November 2015. | I always noticed that in very hard conditions families stick together. Here, a refugee woman from Iraq holds her child shortly after arriving on the Greek island of Lesbos in November 2015. |
| A mother or a father has one goal in these circumstances: to protect their children. They could be powerless, they could be with no money, but at least they do their best to protect their children and to give them as much love as possible. | A mother or a father has one goal in these circumstances: to protect their children. They could be powerless, they could be with no money, but at least they do their best to protect their children and to give them as much love as possible. |
| A simple image can show through the body language of the mum’s hand how worried she is, how lost she feels. She has no idea what to do or what’s next, but she can still provide the maximum she can to protect her children. | A simple image can show through the body language of the mum’s hand how worried she is, how lost she feels. She has no idea what to do or what’s next, but she can still provide the maximum she can to protect her children. |
| This is Kutana al-Hamadi, a 24-year-old Syrian refugee tending to her seven-month-old son who is suffering from malnutrition in an informal settlement on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan. | This is Kutana al-Hamadi, a 24-year-old Syrian refugee tending to her seven-month-old son who is suffering from malnutrition in an informal settlement on the outskirts of Mafraq, Jordan. |
| This photo was taken on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, in 2014. Vendors pass by who sell balloons and bubbles – simple stuff that people can afford to buy. For these children, it’s way more than a balloon. It could be the only toy that they could ever have. I have seen them playing with stones, happier than children with PlayStations. These were the messages I used to learn walking in these environments: that you don’t need much to be happy. | This photo was taken on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, in 2014. Vendors pass by who sell balloons and bubbles – simple stuff that people can afford to buy. For these children, it’s way more than a balloon. It could be the only toy that they could ever have. I have seen them playing with stones, happier than children with PlayStations. These were the messages I used to learn walking in these environments: that you don’t need much to be happy. |
| I’ve seen these children growing up. Some of them were curious to see what I do with this machine. I’m not sure they even knew that it’s a camera or what it does. At a certain point I wanted to show them what I do with this machine and they all gathered. | I’ve seen these children growing up. Some of them were curious to see what I do with this machine. I’m not sure they even knew that it’s a camera or what it does. At a certain point I wanted to show them what I do with this machine and they all gathered. |