PHOTOGRAPHY
Rising Among Ruins, Dancing Amid Bullets By Maryam Ashrafi, with texts by Allan Kaval, Mylène Sauloy, Carol Mann and Kamran Matin Photographs taken in Iraqi and Syrian Kurdistan explore war for civilians, fighters, and the women in their ranks.
Maryam Ashrafi is a social documentary photographer who believes in long term projects, choosing to stay behind the front lines and observe the daily lives of combatants. Above all, she is involved in documenting the everyday life on the Kurdish front. Her work puts a face on a widely commented war which remains perceived mainly by the West in terms of the number of refugees. Maryam documents the war in her own way, stressing its complexities and the actual building of a new social model based on equality where women occupy the same roles as men, which is remarkable in this area of the world. This is why, over the years, she has returned to the same places, from Kobane to Tabqa, to show the unique power of the resilience of the population and the will to live and change. The book is built on the chronology of the events as documented by Maryam Ashrafi, to understand the evolution of the conflict and its consequences on the populations and their living environment. It is a body of images which highlights very important topics as immediate consequences of war, from the sheer destruction to the refugee camps, as they evoke the foundations of the culture and the identity of the Kurdish people – from the ceremonies in honour of martyrs, dances around fires, to New Year celebrations. Finally, Maryam Ashrafi’s work is also about empathy and about invisible wounds; it is obvious that one could not witness a conflict without being caught up in the daily suffering, especially children and women. Maryam finds emotions and feelings, in simple gestures, smiles and dances, these moments of intimacy. The presence of the photographer is forgotten, there remains only the reality of their fight and the resilience of a people. In these moments, she captures expressions that speak so much more than long speeches.
HEMERIA Hardback • 9782490952168 • October 2021 • £65.00 304 pages
11
