A Traveller’s Eye, A Thinker’s Heart
I like to tell stories. I like to take photos.
And I like to share them. Enjoy.
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GAINING RAPPORT
The rugged faces of the Syrian men present a photographer’s dream. I was always on the lookout for an interesting face. I don’t have a story to match each face as generally these would be men with whom I’d have a brief, chance encounter. My favourite portrait would have to be this man who I…
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HUH? SHU? WAYN?
It helps to know the language when you’re travelling in a foreign country. Upon arrival to Syria in 1990, I enrolled in an Arabic class. After a while I was OK with a few basic pleasantries and could manage to communicate at the market. And I could ask for directions … but understanding the response…
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ALEPPO’S COPPER SOUK
You will hear Aleppo’s copper souk long before you arrive. BANG BANG BANG PING PING PING BANG BANG BANG. On a narrow street in Aleppo’s old quarters, copper craftsmen in the Souq Khan al-Nahhaseen congregate as they have for hundreds of years and pound out copper products. It is a drab and filthy area where dust,…
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THE CHILDREN OF IDLIB
Children were my favourite photographic subject. But not always the easiest. A photographer has to develop a rapport and trust with children and photograph them at their own level. I would break the ice by trying to speak Arabic. The children would always be amused when hearing a grown up speak Arabic worse than a…
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A SHEPHERD’S COMFORT
It gets cold and lonely out in the steppe at night but a shepherd has his flock to keep himself company. I was on a road trip with some ICARDA scientists to check out a project in Al Qamishli in the far northeast of the country. It had been a long drive and we were…
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THE COFFEE STOP
There was one certainty in the Syria of the 1990s. If you arrived at someone’s home or tent, no matter where it was and no matter what the time and no matter if they were rich or poor, you would be invited in and offered a coffee or tea or more likely than not, a…
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A SMILE IN THE STRAW
Working out on the farm on a hot summer day can be exhausting. In 1990, I was shooting some photos of a group of men and women chopping up wheat straw for sheep fodder in northern Syria. I was trying to get around the mounds of straw when I heard a rustle in the next…
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COOLING OFF IN THE CISTERN
If the happiness of children is a barometer of the peace and stability of a nation, then all was well in Syria when I took this photo in 1990. I was shooting some photos at a farm when I heard whoops of joy and laughter. I found a group of boys in an irrigation cistern…
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THE BRIDGE OVER THE AFRIN
About 70 kilometres northwest of Aleppo, and just a stone’s throw from the Turkish border, a Roman bridge crosses the Afrin River. I came across it one day while a mate and I were trying to find the Greek – and later Roman – city of Cyrrhus. We came to the bridge and stopped the…
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