This is a tragically beautiful set of photographs taken in Za’atari. They show an up close and very personal insight into one’s life who is existing whilst in the confines of the camp. They demonstrate hope, loss, fear, despair, anger, distrust and sadness. But, these are all of the things that we as global citizens should be fighting to rectify.

These images have no place being in the memories of any child when they think about their childhood. How is it then that they are there already, and more memories just like these are being formed every day with no end in sight?

“Nowhere Boy. The illusion is of a young man going somewhere when, of course, he is going nowhere. His ambitions are those of most young men his age, but his horizon stretches no further than the tent city he surveys. There is nothing in the box.”

“Mother Courage. This young mother is in the waiting room of the French Hospital. She has just handed over her sick child to a French nurse who has walked back into the darkness of the operating theatres. She is not looking at the camera; she is looking somewhere beyond, perhaps to where her child is going. It is the look of fifty thousand women in Zaatari.”

“One Thousand Miles. There is nothing so un-nerving to the photographer as light bouncing back to his camera. It is a symbolic failure. Even if all the layers of fencing were cut away and the young man was able to stand there clearly lit, he is still a thousand miles away from you and I.”

However, there is still hope. 

“Future Zatari 2. It is impossible, even in the Zaatari camp, to be depressed all the time. There is usually a courtesy, a kindness, a genuine interest in visitors, and an old-fashioned Syrian hospitality that still prevails. And there are the children who are the light and hope of the camp – with the proviso, of course, that they are fit and well. Here I have three candidates for future Syria. They are happy and smiling. There is hope.”

Please follow this link look through the entire catalogue of 40 photographs at Hotel Zatari – http://hotelzaatari.com/about-fw/