Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh

lives in Paris; France

© Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh

© Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh

© Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh

A photographic project on the Palestinian Refugee Camps of Lebanon by Simon Lourié & Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh

In Lebanon, 300 000 Palestinians live in 12 crowded refugee camps. Since Mai 2001 we have been working in 6 of these camps which are situated not only around Beirut but also in the North and South of Lebanon. (The situation varies from camp to camp.) All in all 100 young Palestinians between 10 and 16 years old participated in our project.

The initial idea was to give these stateless people the possibility of expressing themselves about their condition and way of life. We decided to work with children because they are the future of these uprooted people. Provided with disposable cameras they demonstrated sensitivity to their situation which they confront every day in the camps, and ably bare witness to a cruel reality. Our particular photographic contribution aimed to seize the selfsame reality with neither pathos nor over-sensationalization. From their own perspective and without any prompting, the kids achieved this goal admirably. Working together helped us to get as close as possible to reality.