Source : Voice of America

In the end of July 2013. renowned photographer Sebastian Rich opened the exhibition of photos documenting difficult condition migrants from war countries are facing. Sebastian Rich calls himself “photoreporter at the right place at the wrong time”.

In the last 40 years, with his camera, Rich captured every major conflict. He was wounded, kidnapped, held hostage, but nothing stopped him capturing human tragedies with his camera.

On the exhibition called “Broken lives” central figures are Syrian reffugees in Jordan and civilians geared with conflicts between government forces and rebels in South Sudan.

                 Photo of Syrian child in refugee camp in Jordan

 “Pride, hope and dignity is all that left them. Reffugees usually have nothing with them when they arrive at reffugee camps at countries that accepted them, but what amazed me the most was the pride and dignity they kept ” says Sebastian Rich, the author of the exhibition.

Rich is well known for unforgettable photos,espcially photos of children, like the photo of a boy from Syria who has just moved to Jordan.With his photos he wants to remind people of the fact that everybody can become reffugee over night.

“Syrian reffugees, for example, come from the cities. They were not farmers. Those people are politicians, lawyers, doctors, police officers, soldiers … and now they are escaped”.

American representative in the UN reffugee agency, Shelly Piterman says that photos of Sebastian Rich reflect the position of reffugees all around the world.

“In some photographs you can see suffering, sadness, lost, fear that they all the fugitives feel. However, sometimes you can even see a glimpse of hope.” Piterman notices.

That hope, says Rich, may be seen in the reffugee camp in South Sudan where country men ran from conflicts between government forces and the rebels. Rich also points out to one Syrian girl who ran to Jordan without anything but didn’t allow that currently imposed situation ruins her life.

“In just few months she opened a shop for renting wedding dresses in a tiny barrack. I have no idea how did she get the material. That enthusiasm is fantastic”.

Rich says that he is grateful to reffugees who allowed him to take pictures of them, even in the hardest moments, like one Sudanese woman who lost her son just as she arrived at the reffugee camp.

“The objective was incredibly close to her face. Even after all these years of unpleasant pointing of camera at the terrible moments of other people’s lives, I wanted to back off but she didn’t let me. She said to my translator: “I want my story to be heard, I don’t want my son to be forgotten”.

UN organisation for reffugees hopes that Rich’s photos will raise the awareness about the miserable and hopeless condition of reffugees in the world, especially the ones from Syria and South Sudan.