Me:

My name is Yousif and I am a 21 year old refugee from Iraq; I arrived in Greece in February 2018 and have since made Lesvos my home. The island hasn’t always been kind to me, even though I knew my journey to safety would be hard I had no idea the hardships I would face during my process as well as the extraordinary moments I would experience. What remained with me through it all were the faces, the people, the stories, both the good and the bad. The frustration that also remained with me was the powerlessness we all felt on the island, that telling our stories was not in our hands. Getting behind the camera had always been an outlet for me, but during my time living in Moria I lost sight of it, I was trying my best to not see anymore, not see the suffering, the pain, and the anger. One day enough was enough, I wanted to tell the stories of my people, the story of humans my humans our humans.

 

Photography:

Many people have come to tell the stories, as outsiders looking in, I want to tell the story from the inside, the beautiful, the sad and ugly. A lot of the photos you will see are of the little people, the most innocent souls aimlessly wandering waiting for someone to care, we need to make them matter, they need it to be seen. Other photos are simply of people with stories to tell, with eyes full of hope or desperation. I want to tell our stories to the world, to depict our suffering without taking away from our dignity. Show the difficulties of our life and the challenges we are facing to survive without taking away from our strength. I hope you will enjoy my work and want to see more for yourself, come visit us anytime.