Flash: photography reveals a humanitarian crisis
Megan Murphy ’17 shows the illuminating power of photography when facing a crisis.
Both peace and war are illuminated and humanized by photography.
In March of 2011, the Syrian people took to the streets in a peaceful demonstration against the lack of political progress in the Syrian government. The result was horrendous, as the government responded by killing, kidnapping, and torturing the peaceful protesters. According to the “BBC”, since then, civil war has broken out between the government and rebels, causing at least 12 million Syrians to become displaced from their homes, taking dangerous attempts to relocate themselves and their families. To escape their situation, the refugees have placed themselves in over-crowded, cramped boats across the Mediterranean Sea to Turkey, Greece, and Lebanon.
Since the boats are so cramped, some of the passengers will fall off, drowning at sea or washing up on the shore. These people must flee their country quietly, in fear of being caught and killed by the government. As the “BBC” further reported, this civil war has cost the lives of 240,000 people (120,000 of them being children). Due to the outpouring of people in Europe, this is causing a migrant crisis for the large continent. These refugees are looking for jobs and shelter, that some parts of Europe is unable to provide.
Photographs of these refugees show their timid soul and the pure fear on their faces,as they flee war and persecution from Syria. A controversial photo was released several months ago by the “Telegraph”, a United Kingdom news website, of a three-year old Syrian boy named Aylan Kurdi, who washed up on the Turkish shore. According to Turkish state news agencies, Kurdi along with his 5 year old brother, and his mother, were drowned after their boat crashed on the coast of the Greek island Kos.
Several other photos of different families have surfaced since but this particular image has caused an outrage concerning the refugee crisis. Photographer and yearbook member Kristin Jacobsen ‘17, takes a look at this photo and says “As an aspiring photographer, this photo brings such a wave of emotions over me. It is so shocking to see what the camera can capture, but at the same time, it is heartbreaking.” Hopefully, the appalling photographs of these children and families will ignite some sort of signal to help and aid these tragic victims of civil war. However, today, the pictures remain a sign of an ongoing crisis that may seem foreign to Americans but, is experienced by so many others. They remain the sole connection we have to the individual narratives of people abroad.
