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Mois : mars 2022

Burj El Barajneh

Many Syrian families are living in the south of Beirut in the Palestinian refugee camp of Burj el Barajneh settled in 1948. The particular workshop was significant both because it was the first time Jungleye did a workshop in an urban context and because it was the first workshop conducted exclusively with women. As an urban refugee camp Burj el Barajneh looks and functions more like a ghetto than a camp. For security reasons, it wasn’t possible for the women to take pictures outside, or even walk within the area holding a camera. As a result of this limitation and because of the subject matter the women proposed, Jungleye quickly decided to do the workshop behind closed doors, meaning the women would focus their reportage on what happened with the confines of their home. In addition, the women decided to also do a reportage on each other.
The nine women; Nuzha, Ghazia, Khawal, Aicha, Safaa, Hayfa, Seba, Farida and Wazira, came to the Jungleye class everyday and did their own photo essay. Unlike other Jungleye projects, where the work is collaborative, each reportage in Burj el Barajneh was created by only one photographer and delved deeply into the realm of the personal. In a stunning display of openness, the women shared their emotions and their private life during the workshop and as a result, the women developed close bond with one another and the Jungleye team. “Behind Closed Doors” photo essay is an intimate and deeply moving testimony about these women’s lives documenting what it means to flee Syria and find refuge in Lebanon. The images of home life and children seen through iron window grills and ghosted behind scrim like curtains remind the viewer what is still at stake in their daily struggle. As these strong women share their emotions and their private lives they help spread the word about the situation of millions of Syrians in Lebanon.