5 Day Photo Challenge: Syria’s Lost Generation

I accepted a photo challenge from Indah Susanti, (I explained about her in my previous post here) which is a combination of two challenges: Black and White 5 Days Photo  Challenge and Five Photos – Five stories Challenge. This is Day 2 of the Photo Challenge, for my next 3 days I will only post 1 Black and White photo per day, together with it’s original colour photograph followed by the story of the picture as part of the Five Story Challenge.

By the end of each post I will invite bloggers to participate in the challenge. Bloggers can decide whether to do both challenges or just one  challenge or not do any of the challenges at all. The rules for the 5 Day Challenge are:

1. On 5 consecutive days, create a post using either a past or recent photo in B&W only for Black and White Challenge OR in color for Five photos – Five stories Challenge.

2. Each day invite another blogger friend to join in the fun.

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Syria’s Lost Generation

The picture above was taken in Palmyra, which used to be one of so many World Heritage sites in Syria that I visited in March 2011, just before the civil war erupted. This boy was there, accompanied his elder brother who tried to sell cheap touristy souvenirs to the limited tourists that day. Normally I don’t really like to take pictures of people’s faces, as with today’s norm there are a lots of consequences in taking portraits of people, but his face was captivating and that smile made my heart melt. My husband gave him some small money in return for his innocent pose.

When I look at my photography library and seeing this particular picture again, which is 4 years later, and Syria’s civil war is still hot as ever, made me think not only lost and ruined historical places, but also this young boy. I bet he’s now forgotten, lost and maybe gone in the middle of the brutal war with no future…. A sad story, but that’s the reality of war and human history.

 

 

The Challenge Invitation

I invite Nurul Lubis of My Lens and Universe, and Indonesian travel blogger and expat whose job enable her to visit Africa, a very unlikely place for an Indonesian not to mention a female traveler in Africa. She also has another blog mainly about her travels (less photo): An Ongoing Journey, less photos but worth checking out.