Settlement Life

Through these photos, I wanted to try to bring humanity to situations that are hard to fathom and imagine and I wanted to focus my lens on courage, despair, and hope.

I got to collect all these photos during my multiple field visits to informal tented settlement housing Syrian Refugees all over Lebanon, but mainly in the North and Bekaa. These photos let us gain insight into wartime everyday life characterized by significant challenges, but also by the creativity and courage of those whose life changed abruptly and unexpectedly.

Three years into the Syrian crisis, racism was mounting in Lebanon towards Syrian Refugees whose stay might be prolonged by the crisis, through these visuals I confronted common perceptions by focusing on deeply personal experiences of people who have been forced to flee their homes and the challenges they face in making their journey.

The Syrian war turned people’s worlds upside down, countless lives have been affected by the conflict. Ordinary people are forced to make extraordinary decisions, like leaving their homes, their schools, their farms, their businesses, and their lives behind.

In settlements, they are hanging by a thread. These permanent visuals are documenting their temporary lives.