When demonstrations started in Syria in March 2011, a group of friends from Homs, all under 25, took their cameras to photograph these unprecedented protests in their city. Soon after, they were photographing the destruction of the city’s streets and neighborhoods as a result of the regime crackdown. Through their lenses, they aim to show the world what Homs was like, and what it has become, documenting memorial revolutionary moments from “the city of the revolution”. They receive daily requests from people who had to flee the city and want to know if their houses have been destroyed or not.
They insist that they are just a group of volunteers, with no professional training, but their work is outstanding. They are the “Lens of a Young Homsi”:
Photo by the “Lens of a Young Homsi”, taken from their Facebook page
This video shows some of their work and why Lens of a Young Homsi makes a difference to those who have been forced to flee their homes in Homs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvNkJKblXAc&feature=player_embedded
“Sandbags, barricades, soldiers armed to their teeth, bullets, bombs, checkpoints cutting out one district from the other…” This is the scenario these young Homsis show through their lenses:
You can follow their work on Facebook and Twitter.
This article was written by Leila Nachawati Rego and originally appeared on Global Voices.
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