Tag: Syria
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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 mound and this woman’s head popped up. I was sorry to have disturbed her during her hard-earned rest break but she was still rewarded me with a beautiful smile.
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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 having the time of their lives. Someone had turned on the irrigation water and it filled the basin and like boys anywhere they stripped down and took a plunge. I laughed with them and was very…
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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 car and said ‘Whoa – can we drive over that?’ It looked solid enough and sure enough it was. In fact for nearly 2000 years it had stood up to continued traffic. I liked to imagine…
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FROM ALEPPO IN A VW
In May of 1993, Padma and I and our VW camper van left Syria with the hopes of spending a few months exploring Turkey. That didn’t quite work out the way we had planned. Our VW wasn’t was licensed in Syria and the Turks didn’t accept our international registration. It’s all complicated but in the end we had to pay a USD5000 bond and were given five days to pass through Turkey. Amazingly we got our $5K back at the Greek border but our plans of a few months photographing the…
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ON! ON!
When I think of happier days in Syria, nothing brings a bigger smile to my face than memories of the Halab Hash House Harriers. I first ran a Hash House Harrier event on the east coast of Malaysia in 1978. I was in a little village and saw signs with HHH so I followed them and soon found a group of Brits, Malays and others loosening up. They invited me to join them on their run. It was the most chaotic run I had ever done. There was no set path.…
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