After Syria

A New Generation’s Pathway to Finding Home

Istanbul, Turkey, April 23, 2020: Hamza celebrates his 4th birthday at home due to the COVID-19 lockdown in the Basakshier neighborhood in Istanbul. Hamza and his family lived under siege for five continuous years and then were forcibly displaced from Eastern Ghouta after a heavy military operation led by Russian and Syrian forces.

Istanbul, Turkey, July 19, 2021: Al-Asali’s band performs Islamic chants in celebration of the upcoming holiday Eid Al-Adha in Hekimoğlu Ali Pasha Mosque. Al-Asali is a famous vocalist in Syria. He left the country after the Syrian government forces bombed his city in the Damascus countryside.

Istanbul, Turkey, July 22, 2021: Syrian youths gather together to skate in the Al-Fatih neighborhood.

Çeşme, Izmir, Turkey, August 8, 2021: Little Amal walks among the audience and salutes the mayor of the city during “The Walk.”

Istanbul, Turkey, January 17, 2021: A view of the Basakshier neighborhood in Istanbul where many Syrians live. More than 500,000 registered Syrian refugees live throughout the city’s neighborhoods.

June 20, 2017, Douma, Eastern Ghouta, Syria: Girls break their daylight fast amid damaged buildings during a Ramadan iftar organized by the Adaleh Foundation.

About the Project

As ART WORKS Projects reflects on our past 15 years amplifying the voices of those impacted by human rights abuses, we are revisiting our friends whose stories left an indelible mark on our journey together.

While the world stood by as the ongoing conflict in Syria resulted in mass civilian death and displacement, ART WORKS Projects turned its attention to Syria’s most vulnerable population – its children. In 2014, AWP collaborated with six photographers to document those caught in the middle of this tragedy, including Bassam Khabieh, a Syrian who picked up a camera and taught himself to document the destruction happening around him. Khabieh and his family were eventually able to escape to Turkey where they now reside in limbo as part of a large community of displaced Syrians.

Conflict is just one entry on the long timeline of displacement for refugees. This new work by Bassam Khabieh provides a renewed focus on Syrians as they continue on their path toward a new home.

about the artist

Bassam Khabieh is an internationally recognized Syrian photographer who documented war crimes and other ongoing human rights violations for eight years during the Syrian war while working for Reuters.

To see more of Khabieh’s work from Syria, order his book Witnesses to War: The Children of Syria. All proceeds benefit Karam Foundation in support of Syrian refugee youth.

digital exhibition

ART WORKS Projects presents After Syria, a digital exhibition by Bassam Khabieh.

Public program

The Children of Syria are growing up. In partnership with the Karam Foundation, ART WORKS Projects hosted a panel discussion on October 20, 2021, featuring photographer Bassam Khabieh, who contributed to our 2013 exhibition The Children of Syria that documented the lives of children displaced by the conflict in Syria. AWP debuted the digital exhibition of Khabieh’s recent work featuring refugee children who are growing up and confronting new challenges navigating life outside of their home country.

Event Speakers: Bassam Khabieh, photographer; Lina Sergie Attar, founder and CEO, Karam Foundation; Amy Yenkin, Co-Producer and Co-Editor