**Winner of the Lucie Photo Book Prize 2022 - Traditional Category
**
Maryam Ashrafi is a social documentary photographer who believes in long
term projects, she chooses to stay behind the front lines and observe
the daily lives of combatants, which includes a lot of waiting around.
She is above all involved in documenting the everyday life on the
Kurdish front. Her work puts a face on a widely commented war which
remains, from afar, 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.#11;
"The struggle of the Kurdish people and their fight for freedom and
fundamental rights have not come to an end, and therefore this book
cannot portray all of their journeys, nor shall I stop documenting what
is still to come. Yet I believe, as a witness, I owe it to history and
to those I have met for sharing some of these images in this book to
show part of their journey to freedom and equality," Maryam
believes.#11;
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.
Photographer James Nachtwey once made a point about such war photographs
shown in museums, or in a book; it is "a space for reflection on the
universality of the dramas that humanity is going through in its
entirety."
During her travels, Maryam Ashrafi has created a body of images which
highlight very important topics as they are an immediate consequence 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 - the
ceremonies in honor of martyrs, dances around fires, New Year
celebrations, etc.
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. Let's listen to them in the midst
of ruins, dancing amid bullets.
