al Choucha - Insight


  • 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. I waved hello and the same voice, now softer, greeted me and asked to come in and sit with the others.

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.

Inside the tent I spotted one man seated on one side that did not participate in this homecoming. He had his back to me and didn't seem to be at all interested in the excitement. I sat next to him. I continued taking pictures but I started focusing my attention on him. He was drawing the walls of the tent with crayons trying to somehow express his own feelings of his predicament. He had an inner world, a silent voice, that was covering the others. I heard it - he said: I want to live in peace.

You can create multiple entries, and pay for them at the same time.
Just go to your History, and select multiple entries that you would like to pay for.