24/05/15 - Chermo camp, Chamchamal, Iraq - A view of Chermo Camp, on the way between Sulaimaniyah to Chamchamal (visible in the far back of the picture). © Dario Bosio and Stefano Carini/Metrography
17/02/15 -Tanjero, Iraq: Ghazal hangs up the family laundry while holding her grandson, Mazal. The family of Yezidis, displaced from Sinjar, live next to an oil refinery in the Kurdish Region of Iraq. The young men run the refinery 24 hours a day with little to no safety equipment. © Sebastian Meyer/Metrography
04/06/2014. Shaqlawa, Iraq. - A group of displaced men from Al Anbar and Syria sleep on the floor at the Gazino cafe, where they all work as waiters. © Rawsht Twana/Metrography
28/08/15. Shaqlawa, Iraq. - Jaser, from Falluja, washes his father's grave in the new part of Shaqlawa's graveyard. His father died two months after arriving to Shaqlawa as a displaced person, early 2014. © Dario Bosio/Metrography
29/08/15. Shaqlawa, Iraq. - A group of young displaced people from Al Anbar province play cards in a garden at the centre of the bazar where they meet regularly at the end of each day. © Dario Bosio/Metrography
16/05/15. Awbar Village, Darbandikhan area, Iraq. - The mountains around Awbar village. © Aram Karim/Metrography
17/12/14 - Sulaymaniyah, Iraq - A portrait of Daham Faiaq 12, y.o. refugee from Kobane, Syria inside his room at the Babosi Hotel, where families of Iraqi IDPs live together with refugees from Syrian Kurdistan. © Aram Karim/Metrography
22/05/2015. Sharbazher village. Tea break during the construction of a small house in a piece of land belonging to the aunt of Mohammed, an IDP from Sinjar. © Rawsht Twana/Metrography
24/05/15 - Chermo camp, Chamchamal, Iraq - A portrait of Hayder, 32, his wife Zahraa, 27, and their kids Nabaa, Moustafa, Muhamed and Fadel. From Bartella, Mosul. The holy Quran that Hayder took with him when leaving his home in Bartella. © Dario Bosio and Stefano Carini/Metrography
20/05/15. Shaqlawa, Iraq. - A displaced Christian boy from Qaraqosh inside the courtyard at Al Shuhada church. Around 800 Christian families have arrived to Shaqlawa since August 2014. Most of them have now been moved to shipping containers in a new camp in Erbil. © Stefano Carini/Metrography
04/04/2015, Kirkuk, Iraq. - Widad (Sunni Muslim) visits Ghanem's (Christian) part of the house for a friendly tea session. © Bnar Sardar/Metrography
27/07/15, Zakho, Iraq - Jihan 20 years old, illiterate From Sinon, Sinjar area. Date of capture: 04/08/2014. Length of captivity: 10 months. Identifying details of the girls' accounts have been omitted, their names changed and identifying physical features and designs (such as tattoos) have been deleted in order to ensure their safety. © Seivan M. Salim/Metrography
Fondata nel 2009, Metrography è la prima agenzia irachena di fotogiornalismo. Il primo obiettivo dell’agenzia è stato soprattutto quello di riuscire a formare fotografi curdo-iracheni, affinché si potesse avere un punto di vista “interno” ad una realtà raccontata in maniera predominante dai media occidentali.
Map of Displacement è un progetto multimediale nato in seno all’agenzia, con l’intento di riuscire a raccontare efficacemente le condizioni di vita di circa un milione e mezzo di persone che sono dovute fuggire dall’avanzata dell’IS, rifugiandosi nella regione del Kurdistan iracheno. Il progetto è portato avanti dai fotografi di Metrography insieme a giornalisti e fotografi internazionali.
Dario Bosio, che con Stefano Carini è editor del progetto, così ha descritto a Phom la genesi di Map of Displacement:
«L’idea per Map of Displacement è venuta a Stefano Carini dopo i primi mesi del conflitto con ISIS. I fotografi dell’agenzia avevano coperto ogni angolo della guerra, e le fotografie di Metrography erano apparse su alcune tra le più importanti pubblicazioni internazionali. Nonostante questo, come unica agenzia Irachena, la sensazione era che si potesse fare di più. Mentre i media internazionali si focalizzavano sugli scontri e sulle linee del fronte, una parte importante della storia non veniva riportata: la catastrofe umanitaria causata dal conflitto.
Per noi era di cruciale importanza riuscire a raccontare questa parte della storia. Abbiamo lasciato le frontline, che raccontava poco sul costo umano della guerra, e ci siamo dedicati per un anno intero a raccogliere le storie e le testimonianze degli sfollati interni al Kurdistan Iracheno.
Mentre i media internazionali andavano e venivano, noi vivevamo lì, i nostri fotografi erano iracheni, conoscevano la lingua e il territorio meglio di chiunque altro. Inoltre, ognuno di loro era stato a sua volta sfollato o rifugiato almeno due volte nel corso della sua vita: la prima durante il genocidio perpetrato da Saddam Hussein contro i curdi nel 1988, la seconda durante la guerra del Golfo del 1991 - tutti loro sapevano per esperienza diretta cosa significa vivere da sfollato.
Abbiamo unito i nostri fotografi locali a un team di scrittori internazionali, così da poter beneficiare di ambedue i punti di vista sulla stessa tematica, e abbiamo così potuto mettere insieme dodici storie da ogni angolo della regione, costruendo quello che è diventato il primo progetto collettivo di Metrography: una mappa interattiva che racconta lo sfollamento interno all’interno del Kurdistan Iracheno.»
Map of Displacement è realizzato da un team di 12 persone, diverse per background e provenienza. Qui potete leggere i loro profili.
Gabriele Magazzù
ENGLISH VERSION
In 2009 the first Iraqi agency for photojournalism was founded: Metrography. Its first aim was to develop the skills of local photographers in order to have an internal point of view of issues that were predominantly covered and told by western media.
Map of Displacement is a multimedia project started within the agency, which's purpose was to tell efficiently the life conditions of circa one million and a half people who had to escape IS's advance, seeking refuge in the Kurdish region of Iraq. The project is carried out by Metrography's photographers along with international journalists and photographers. Dario Bosio is the project's editor together with Stefano Carini, and he told Phom about the genesis of Map of Displacement:
«The idea for Map of Displacement came to Stefano Carini after the first months of the war against IS. The agency's photographers had covered every corner of the conflict, and their photographs appeared on some of the major international publications. Nevertheless, as we're the only Iraqi agency, we thought we could do more. While international media were focussing on the front lines and the combats, a fundamental part of the story wasn't being told: the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the conflict. It was for us crucial to provide that kind of narrative as well. We left the front lines, as we could not cover from there the enormous human cost of the war, and we dedicated ourselves for a year to collect stories and accounts of the displaced people who were now in the Kurdish region of Iraq. While international reporters were coming and going, we were actually living there, our photographers were Iraqi, they spoke the language and they knew the territory better than anyone. Moreover, each of them had been displaced at least twice in their lifetime: the first one during the genocide perpetrated by Saddam Hussein against the Kurds in 1988, the second time during the Gulf War in 1991. They all knew by personal experience what it meant to live as a refugee. We put together our local photographers with an international team of writers, so that we could benefit of various perspectives on the same issues, and we were able to develop twelve stories from the whole region, building what it became Metrography's first collective project: an interactive map that illustrates the displacement within the Kurdish area of Iraq.»
Map of Displacement was accomplished by a team of twelve people. Here you can learn more about them.
Gabriele Magazzù
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