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Al Zaatari Refugee camp

Series of 18

Al Zaatari, Jordan

The Al Zaatari Refugee Camp is located in the Jordanian- Surian border, in the jordanian desert. It was first created in July 2012, in order to accommodate Syrian Refugees. Jordan was unable to absorb the refugees in the mainland due to its country’s own overpopulation issues. Al Zaatari is the 2nd biggest refugee camp in the whole world and the 4th biggest city in Jordan, since its population today exceeds 120.000 ‘inhabitants’.

In July 2013, I visited the camp, in order to spend 10 days with people, who were force to flee their country, abandon their everyday life and live in exile because of civil war. The timing of my visit coincided with the holy month of Ramadan, where Muslims fast from sunrise until sunset, with result a lot of camp activities to take place during the night.

The images in their entirety aim to convey my own personal experiences in an effort to register the way these people live. By removing their caption, I urge the viewer to give his own personal interpretation to my images. The installation of this project will be destructed upon completion of its purpose, thus metaphorically underlining the temporal nature that a refugee camp should serve, as an extreme temporary solution.

The support of UNHCR and MSF made this project a reality.

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