20 Days in Syria
The Days I almost died
This is not a fiction story.
This is me travelling to Syria and spending time with the most dangerous men in the world. The Al Nusra Brigade.
20 Days, that completely changed me as a person and how I see the world around me.
Be warned, some of the images you will see in this story contain graphic content and could be very disturbing.
The Arrival
I travelled from London to Gazantiep in Turkey, where I arrived at 22:30 local time. After grabbing my bag & my protection equipment, I ventured out of the terminal and tried to grab a taxi.
Easier said then done as no one wanted to drive me to the 60km away syrian border. „crazy man“ and shaking heads was the response I got. After quite a while, I found a young guy who drove me to the border.
Aleppo
In the morning, I arrived in Aleppo – A city I always imagined as beautiful and cultural rich. What I found was an empty city, with people avoiding the streets. Buildings are destroyed and the beautiful Old City of Aleppo – which is a world heritage site – is completely shattered.
The first days, I took the time to get familiar with about being in an actual war zone before I started to attend Anti Assad demonstrations and start to photograph them.
The Children of Aleppo
I worked for quite a while within a child hospital in the old city of Aleppo. This undoubtedly was the hardest photographic assignment I ever did as it is heartbreaking to see all these children suffering from the consequences of this horrible civil war.
Barrel Bombs
I arrived at the scene, minutes after two barrel bombs hit a residential area. Felt really surreal as everyone was running around, shouting, crying and digging for people with their bare hands.
