Smithsonian magazine's 22nd Annual Photo Contest | Made possible through the support of MPB.com

15th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest People
01

Two years ago, I traveled to Kobane to work on a project about war children. When I returned back to Tehran I felt the passion to go back and work on a project this time with more personal involvement. Since Children have always been my fascinations, I chose to go to Syria to make a series with them. Luckily I got permission to access to Aleppo. Children are so pure and in them I see the future of mankind. By educating them in a wisely, they are capable to influence our future in an astonishing way . Working with children is not only my interests or my motifs, but it helps me to learn more about the human relationships. I searched for a way to connect to them and use photography as the tool. I let the children to create the image with me, by explaining how my equipment works. So, I created an atmosphere where they felt free to be creative and forget about the war for a while. This way we could tell their story together. Besides, my intention was to consider a variety of people living in this situation, showing the different aspects of everyday life. Along with, my objective was to combine the authentic photography with the history of photography in Iran. I created a studio outside by using a white canvas in the background as it has used to be hundred years ago called “akas-bashi”. With this I aimed to take people out of the war zone as we usually used to see them ‘media-wise’ in a destroyed surrounding. With this work, I wanted to give them their identity back and let them feel their power again.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 07.2017
Date Uploaded: 11.2017
Photo Location: Aleppo , Syria
Camera: Canon EOS 6D
Copyright: © Amir Kabir Jabbari