from both sides of a delicate border

Damascus- between the souks and mosques

Syria | Sunday, January 20, 2013 | 5 photos

I feel grateful for these opportunities that lead us to broader horizons.I discovered just how profound my love for photography was when I was studying sociology in New Orleans 12 years ago.Then I decided to leave academia behind and followed my need to share the world with others visually through my images.I was working full time at a youth center in SW Chicago fulfilling another goal of mine which was to make positive change in the community.There I learned the value and need for respect in our world.I was greatly inspired by the founders of the center’s progressive outlook on how to fulfill the needs of a community project and still am very much influenced by the experience and those values today.After working with them as the director of one of the youth programs I began a photography after school project.I transformed a bathroom into a darkroom for the teenage youth using mostly donated items that I acquired throughout Chicago.Eventually I found it was necessary to take a leap and fully discover the place of my birth, Beirut.