Halim Ina Photography

Friday, December 24, 2021

Syrian Child + School, Near Zahle, Lebanon, 2019

It’s amazing to see such expressions of love on my first visit to a place. One, this is a conservative community. Two, the pictures are being made by a stranger to her camp. Three, I am Lebanese while she is Syrian.

In the end all three points are irrelevant. More than Arabic as a common language, it’s the language without words that matters most.

Here she is in front of the NGO school in her camp, expressing herself with that pose and smile!

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Syrian Girls + Tent, Near Zahle, Lebanon, 2019

The darkroom has been the saving grace for this summer's inability to travel, especially to see my family in Lebanon... both blood and photographic. Moments like the one in this image are unforgettable, and inspire me to believe in a better future. These girls and their families were forced to leave their homeland of Syria due to the civil war, and have done their best to survive in Lebanon. We were finished with our photography for the afternoon and decided to have some fun with the digital camera. A bit of joking and they were off to the races with their laughter... missing moments like this, and will wait patiently until the next time!

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Syrian Refugee + Window, Near Zahle, Lebanon, 2019

The processing of this summer's film is almost finished, and I cannot wait to see the negatives. Thanks to the trust of the Syrian community, my hope is that poignant portraits of their children have been made and that these can provide a greater sense of understanding between all in Lebanon.

Note: This image was made with a Fuji X-T3.

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Syrian + Bus, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, 2019

This week was spent scanning the film from India and then Lebanon. This young girl lives in a camp which has been visited by me for almost two decades. The Syrian community which lives here accepts me as family, and I do the same in return. She was sitting in the school bus which drove the children of this camp to a school in town. It is driven by an incredibly kind man, and these images were made thanks to him and his wonderful neighbor as well. Soon after we had this session, the army came into the camp and confiscated their bus. It was not only their children's transportation to school, it was also this family's only source of income. My hope is that the dire situation in Lebanon improves for them, and for all living within its borders.

Esta semana la pasé escaneando los rollos desde India y luego Líbano. Esta joven vive en un campamento que he visitado durante casi dos décadas. La comunidad siria que vive aquí me acepta como familia, y yo hago lo mismo a cambio. Estaba sentada en el autobús escolar que llevó a los niños de este campamento a una escuela en la ciudad. Está conducido por un hombre increíblemente amable, y estas imágenes se hicieron gracias a él y a su maravilloso vecino también. Poco después de tener esta sesión, el ejército entró al campo y confiscó su autobús. No solo era el transporte de sus hijos a la escuela, sino también la única fuente de ingresos de esta familia. Espero que la grave situación en el Líbano mejore para ellos y para todos los que viven dentro de sus fronteras.

Monday, November 12, 2018

Girl at Play, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, 2018

My photography in Lebanon is different than my photography in other countries, for my family lives here also. The contrasts are as striking as the similarities. The children I photograph speak the same language as my family, yet they are from another country. In the morning I may be with my family in the town and then photographing in the camps located below in the valley.

There is the contrast in religions, the difference in nationalities... while there is the similarity in ethnicity, in culture. It is a fascinating experience and one perhaps which has been taken for granted. Next year that changes, for I will be spending more time with both families, one blood and one photographic.

Speaking of culture, on the morning this image was made the girls decided to imitate what they see on their television screens. The films of India have made their way to Lebanon in a dramatic fashion. The children watch the films with fascination, and know the popular songs by heart. They even recognized some of the songs on my phone, videos of girls in Uttar Pradesh performing popular pieces from Bollywood.

So after an hour of formal portraits, the girls decided to dress up and have some fun. They changed scarves and pulled jewelry out of nowhere it seemed. The energy level during this phase of photography was much different, more vibrant. They exchanged scarves and helped each other with styling.

It was also chaotic, almost too much on the mother of the tent in which we were photographing. She endured as much as she could, and then came up with a reason to end it all as the situation was almost out of control!

Instagram

Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M3.

Friday, October 26, 2018

Syrian Girl + Tent, Bekaa Valley, Zahle, Lebanon, 2018

This young girl lives in the spot where my photography was born over two decades ago. This past month was my chance to photograph them again, following the documentation from last year. Her parents were the ones photographed by me so many years ago, now it was her turn. She is a young Syrian girl living in a camp just outside of Zahle, Lebanon. Her community has lived there for over three decades, prior to the current influx of Syrians from the hostilities in their homeland.

Instagram

Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M3.

Sunday, June 24, 2018

Syrian Girl + Garden, Zahle, Lebanon, 2017

She is as striking as her predecessors in her camp, as beautiful as any other in this world. Her homeland is in distress, and her life in Lebanon is anything but stable. Yet she does what she can to help her family, and endures with such grace.

On my second day to her camp she was helping her mother with the purchase of some vegetables from a visiting truck. She caught my attention right away, but her presence was missing as we had our first session.

As the third day arrived it seemed that she would never come, and then she approached us with a smile. She might have seen the photographs in her friends' hands from the day before, or just the commotion from the photography. Regardless she allowed me to make her portrait twice, in the shade and in direct sunlight.

She was silent the entire time, but spoke volumes through her expressions. My hope is that this portrait does justice to her spirit, and that she allows me once again to make her portrait tomorrow.

Website

Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M3.

Saturday, January 6, 2018

Young Syrian + Camp, Zahle, Lebanon, 2017

This young girl lives in Lebanon at this time, escaping the violence next door in her homeland of Syria. Her home happens to be the camp in which my photography was born, and she lives among the children of the children whose portraits were made almost 20 years ago.

She is quite the strong spirit, allowing this portrait to be made on our first day together. It was as if she had done this a million times before, such a natural. Her eyes are as clear as the Lebanese sky during the summertime, yet she was able to open her eyes perfectly in the sunlight. She is a sister to the girls just photographed in Nicaragua, to the girls photographed a few months ago in Cuba and to the girls in India to be visited in two months.

Her life is almost unimaginable for most, having lost her homeland and living in a tent city where even the most basics of life are absent. Unlike the children of my friends, she cannot attend a school, lacks a place to bathe herself or to attend to her needs in private. She presents herself to the world in this portrait with only the positive, perhaps as if to shield us from the difficulties she faces on an hourly basis. I admire her without limits, and see her as a true hero in this most difficult world.

Website

Note: This image was made with a Hasselblad 555 ELD/180 mm combination.

Monday, July 3, 2017

Daughter of Sheikh, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, 2009

On the 11th of August in 2009 her portrait was made, over a dozen years after my photography was born in her camp. She and her family lived in Lebanon as migrants, and her father was in charge of negotiating between the Lebanese farmers and the Syrian laborers in his encampment. Her community had one foot in Lebanon, and the other in Syria.

She has two older sisters who had been photographed by me previously, when they were allowed to be photographed... and two younger sisters who photographed freely with us at the time of this portrait. She is the most precious of girls, and words fail me in describing my feelings for her and her family. She is like a daughter to me, and my upcoming trip to Lebanon is filled with the hope of seeing her again.

One day as we finished our photography and were walking back to her tent, we shared the most incredible conversation out in the open, yet out of hearing range from the community. It will remain in my memory for life, and is what drives this work forward. Such experiences are priceless and demonstrate how special this path in life truly is.

Website

Note: This image was made with a Hasselblad 555 V system.

Sunday, June 25, 2017

Young Arab Girl + Sky, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, 2010

Whenever this young girl steps in front of the camera she presents the most beautiful smile. Her features alone are beyond compare, and being with her in person is an indescribable experience. She rarely speaks, and when she smiles she lights up the world. She is of Syrian origin, and lives with her family in Lebanon in order to earn a better living. Their home is a simple tent and is without running water, a toilet... with electricity being a simple wire for a single light.

She and her family have fascinated me from the beginning. They live just outside of the tiny tent city, at the edge of the field. The families in the main homes refer to themselves as Arab, while they refer to her family as Bedouin in origin. She may be 15 years old by now, and my mind can only imagine how beautiful she has become. i look forward to visiting the site of this portrait, and hope to reunite with her family in a few weeks.

Website

Note: This image was made with a Hasselblad 555 ELD/180 mm combination onto Fuji Neopan Acros 100 film.

Friday, January 15, 2016

Mechanics + Engine, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, 2008

These young mechanics worked in a shop adjacent to the girls in my photographs. As I walked past them they began speaking to me, and asked about my camera. They wanted to be photographed, and so I did. Each had their own response to being photographed, but all were kind in their responses.

We talked for a few more minutes, I walked over to look at the engine, loved the scent of the space, then walked over to photograph the girls next door.

Note: This image was made with a Contax G2/45 mm combination onto Fuji Neopan Acros 100 ISO film.

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Partial Proof, Syrian Refugee, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, 2010

While she certainly has never asked to be, for me hers is the face of the current refugee crisis. Two years before the war ravaged this land, her family lived as migrants in Lebanon, hundreds of miles away from her beloved city of Halab. In this cruel setting she is able to portray her joy to us, her sense of hope.

During my visits to these camps, the children's faces were charred from the sun and the wind, while their hair had the consistency of cotton candy. They played in the dirt paths between the tents, sometimes running dangerously close to the streets nearby. Every once in a while a child would be struck by a speeding motorist, the communities shared with me, while local authorities treated such incidents as inconsequential. These brave faces lived on the outskirts of the surrounding society, performing their duties unseen in order to help support their families back home.

For those of us with children, can we imagine for one second our child's face with such scars? Can we imagine the hair on our children's heads having such a consistency? Can we imagine the clothes on our children's backs so fragile, so stained? Can we for one moment endure the dryness of their skin, dirt near their lips?

Yet these children do more than endure, do much more than survive. While there is little doubt that the cruel world has dealt them a hard set of circumstances, they refuse to give up. The boys do what they can with the tools around them, taking for example a long wire and fixing a cylinder to its end as a toy. The girls take flowers from the gardens in front of their tents and adorn themselves, playing with stuffed pieces of cloth as others would do with dolls. While their physical world is limited, they have shown me that their imaginations cannot be restrained.

Note: Images made with a Hasselblad 555 ELD/180 mm lens combination onto Fuji Neopan Acros 100 ISO film.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Syrian Girl + Flower, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, Summer of 2009

This is the face of the Syrian refugee crisis. Although the portrait was made over seven years ago, she was living in Lebanon along with her family as economic refugees. They were from Halab, a city now laying in ruins. When people speak of the refugee crisis, she is about whom they are speaking. The war, the violence, the hatred, the disassociation and the rejection are cruelest to her and those like her… for they have contributed nothing to any of these nouns.

My hope is that the next time someone speaks of the refugees, that they make the time to look at them as individuals rather than as a collective, and to think twice before repeating some phrase or quoting some so-called pundit.

Our show at the Cleveland Print Room in less than three weeks is dedicated to her and those like her in Rajasthan, India. My hope is that the world becomes less cruel, and more open to the simple gesture of a flower placed under the shawl of this priceless girl.

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Note: This image was made with a Hassselblad 555 ELD/180 mm combination onto Fuji Neopan Acros 100 ISO film.

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Syrian Migrant + Chair, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, Summer of 2009

This portrait is dedicated to the countless refugees on the move presently around the world. This young boy happened to be a migrant worker photographed during my time in Lebanon. His family crossed into Lebanon in search of a better economy, working in the fields picking vegetables or in the factories of the region.

Their tent towns dotted the landscape, filled with life. Most would pass by them without as much as a glance, driving at such speeds which would seem unimaginable should their own children we walking in the streets. The children themselves were incredibly resilient, taking care of themselves and their younger siblings. They played with handmade toys, a stick with a wheel at the end… or perhaps with a rag doll short on recognizable features.

This was the exact spot in which my photography began, and I yearn for the day when I can return to greet these families, as well as my own of course. My hope is that next year this will happen, that the violence in the Middle East at the moment is far, far away from this young boy and his family.

Website