LIFE AFTER THE EXODUS


  • Photographer
    Alexandros Demetriades
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Date of Photograph
    2011
Story

I was walking around al Choucha camp when I heard a voice coming from inside one of the tents "Please, please come in..."
I stopped and bent over to try to make eye contact with the mystery voice. I raised a semi transparent cloth to see a bunch of men looking at me. As I made my way in the tent some men got up and reshuffled themselves to make room for me. Their hands now extended to greet me and make contact. I started shooting thinking that these people that I didn't know, who had spent the last three months in a refugee camp and whose future was uncertain made me feel at home.

Even if frustration and mental exhaustion is what exuded first and most from the refugees at the al Choucha refugee camp, after a prolonged period of stay nature takes its course. People inadvertently cling to their own kind, makeshift suppliers appear out of nowhere selling all kinds of goods to the needy and people like anywhere else in the world begin to form strong opinions about their neighbors. I felt that they wanted to tell their story and for anyone to convey their feelings and concerns to the world. I also felt that as time eroded their common cause for being in the camp, different factions and ideologies where starting to take shape, ones that will for surely lead to more tensions and possibly violence.

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