TEHRAN- A photo exhibition titled “Return; photos of life after the war in Syria” opened on Sunday at the Iran Photographers Gallery No. 2, based in Art Bureau in Tehran.

According to the public relations office of the Art Bureau, 49 photos by five Iranian photographers are displayed on the walls of the gallery, each referring to a specific mood of the Syrian people after the war. 

One photo shows young people playing in the football field of the Salahuddin neighborhood in Aleppo, another one depicts children playing with a vehicle destroyed in the Syrian civil war, and a little further on, the lives of people in the remnants of multinational conflicts can be seen.

Amir Rostami is one of the photographers who has participated in the exhibition with more than 12 photos at the event. 

“I traveled to Syria twice in 2018 and 2019 and stayed there for 47 days each time,” he said. “Answering the question ‘why did you return under these conditions?’ they would say, ‘this is our home. We belong here and not anywhere else’. And what they called home were the ruins of former buildings, with all the pillars, doors, and windows destroyed”.

“What is presented to the audience in this exhibition is a selection of recorded images that show the diversity of the photographers' vision,” he noted.

Meysam Maleki is another photographer, whose eight photos are shown at the exhibition. “These photos were taken in 2018, which was the end of the Syrian war and the beginning of the return of the Syrian people to their cities. My photos were taken with the approach of life affected by war and are mostly related to the Yarmouk district, eight kilometers from Damascus, which is an unofficial refugee camp for Palestinians. One million people were living there. With the arrival of 300 ISIS fighters and creating terror in the region, they were forced to leave Yarmouk, so that the Takfiris were able to easily conquer the region,” he said.

“I went to Yarmouk to take pictures and I saw people return there for different reasons. There I saw that ISIS had robbed people of their lives and did not leave a single photo of them. This was a very painful scene for me as a photographer,” he added.

“Under such conditions, I had to record all the feelings, the situation, and the atmosphere, because I believe that without showing the destruction after the occupation, the countries that intend to conquer other countries will continue their approach. I thought that events and facts should be recorded and recounted in image format so I needed to take photographs,” Maleki asserted.

The other photographers whose photos are on display at the exhibit include Hamed Sodachi, Saeed Faraji, and Saber Ghazi. 

The photos will remain on the walls of the Iran Photographers Gallery No. 2, in Art Bureau, located on Somayeh Street, between Qarani and Hafez streets for a month until May 16.

SS/