For the opening of the fall season, Green Art Gallery will be presenting ‘Wounds’, a
series of works by Syrian photographer Jaber Al Azmeh. This series began and
evolved along with the revolutionary movements happening in Syria during the
crucial first ten months that the country was in turmoil.

Photographing individuals from his social circle, including those who were actively
part of the revolutionary movement, Al Azmeh asked his subjects to re-enact and
perform the stories that they had witnessed or heard about from what was
happening in the streets.

As the protests and violence increased, Al Azmeh along with many other activists
and critics of the current regime had to leave their country for their own safety.
Isolated and left with only stories that he heard about the events unfolding within
Syria, Al Azmeh eventually became the protagonist of his own work, re-enacting and
photographing himself as he transformed from social observer to social activist.
Images of the conflict in Syria have been exploited by the media to such an extent,
that it may be argued that the image of violence itself has come to define the whole
area. Using a camera, the object which played perhaps the most important role in
recording and transmitting all the events that have unraveled over the last 18
months, Al Azmeh was very conscious of how journalistic photography objectifies its
victims. By highlighting only the outline of the individual’s body as it was in
movement, his photographs eliminate the personalization that would occur by
depicting an individual’s characteristics. His work is not about the individual, or Syria
alone for that matter, it is about the universal collective who struggle against the
face of their very own right to freedom.

Born in Damascus in 1973, Jaber Al Azmeh is photographer based in Doha, Qatar. He
received his BFA in Visual Communications at Damascus University. In addition to
being a professional photographer since 1998, he was also a resident professor at
the International University of Science & Technology in Damascus since 2006.