About the Project:
Surrounded by those fleeing warfare and shelling, in conflict zones around the world, there are those who seek to make a living from those very shells. By collecting spent ammunition and also unexploded ordnance, and selling the scrap metal, some are able to make a living and endure. Hassan Abu Malik has been displaced from the town of Al Lataminah, in the countryside north of Hama, Syria, since 2014. The area has seen heaving fighting and bombing campaigns as a result of its proximity to Syrian government strongholds.Hassan sells scrap metal and works to dismantle spent and unexploded ordnance including shells, mortar rounds, missiles, and bullets. It is a dangerous task but Hassan has mastered it. In effect, these missiles and shells have been turned from a tool of destruction to a source of livelihood for others.
About the Photographer:
Ali Haj Suleiman is a photojournalist living in Idlib in Northwest Syria, he is 24 years old, he has over 10 years of photography experience, he covers social, military events and the humanitarian situation collaborating with numerus NGOs, rights organizations, local and international media outlets, his work was recognized and exhibited internationally, and his passion remains to develop professionally and provide the best content that Syria deserves.He started holding the camera since he was 14 because he had to drop school and help his mother to make a living for or family of six after his father got forcibly disappeared by the Syrian regime in the third year of war.He grow up in Damascus suburb, but when he was 13, he moved back with his mother and siblings to their hometown in the southern countryside of Idlib, in 2020 he was displaced along with hundreds of thousands of people as a result of the military advancement of regime forces and allies.Now he lives in Idlib city, he is a freelance photojournalist, he struggle, along with more than five million people in northwest Syria, from the lack of safety, stability and siege in the last area controlled by the opposition factions in the country.His hope is one day he would be able to turn his camera to film happy events, where all people are safe and recovering from a past war, but unfortunately the war still rages on and Syrians are suffering from diaspora with the loss of their homes and loved ones.
