More than 70,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in Syria since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began more that 2 years ago. What began as peaceful pro-democracy protests has ended as the worst nightmare Syrian citizens could imagine. Ans survival is not easy. Syrians hardly resist the harshness of war, therefore, to give voice to an issue of such magnitude and gravity, I propose these photographs as a sample of the body of work I've been doing in Syria since September 2012 until the end of March 2013.
More than 70,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in Syria since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began more that 2 years ago. What began as peaceful pro-democracy protests has ended as the worst nightmare Syrian citizens could imagine.
The Syrian Army daily bombards the territory, especially areas with a large concentration of civilians, as schools where women, children and elders take shelter after losing their homes, hospitals or bread lines.
Just to give a glimpse into the level of despair that exists on the streets of cities like Aleppo: the kind of streets like the one where Dar Al Shifa hospital was located. In another time, must have been a busy avenue, with many shops, crowded, sounds and smells of life. Now, colors and sounds have become cold, dingy and the only thing that resonate are bombs falling down, the "Allah u Akbar" that people scream while running to take shelter when mortars ans sniper shots sound get closer. Wounded arrive, as an incessant drip to hospitals like this one, lacking these, basic material and ambulances to serve them properly.
Not a soul on the street, just a little shop where they serve tea and coffee at the corner, only medical personnel and FSA fighters around, waiting at the door of the hospital, hoping that nobody comes, wishing not to hear the nervous sound of claxons of fruit trucks transporting children, women and elders without legs, without arms, tattered, surrounded by blood, fear and tears.
After 8 attempts, Dar al Shifa Hospital was finally razed by Syrian Army artillery shelling, destroying the building and killing 20 people, including doctors, hospital staff, wounded that were being treated at the time, among whom were two children. 20 wounded and still many under the rubble. Remaining survivors have started a small and very secret field hospital, consisting of a room separated with pieces of fabric to give some privacy to patients. They run on a generator and even less material than the last time.
A further 2.5 million Syrians urgently need humanitarian aid, half of them are children and teenagers, and over 340,000 have crossed the border to Syria’s neighbouring countries (Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey), according to UN estimates. The makeshift refugee camps, controlled by FSA, are reported to be growing daily, housing several thousands of refugees under poor sanitary conditions, like lack of food, which increasingly scarce in shops and markets and has doubled in price quickly, drinking water, electricity, blankets or tents, worsen, even by the winter and the cold weather.
The Syrians hardly resist the harshness of war, therefore, to give voice to an issue of such magnitude and gravity, I propose a body of photographic work, containing small pieces of Syrian lives, I have been doing from September 2012 to the end pf March 2013.