Beyond Scars [TOP100]
This project tries to reach the authenticity of people who had contracted the bitterness or resentfulness through their lives. The idea comes from street photography.
I felt like I know my subjects through their spontaneity that clarified their state of mind. My inspiration came from the people who have experienced the bitterness and roughness of this world. Injured people, homeless people, beggars and poor underprivileged people that I met coincidently during my journeys in my life are the models in my photography which portrays my compassion and empathy to the world.
It is a powerful spiritual iconography by which I intend to give them a glimmer of light in their eyes, to bring joy to their broken hearts, to give them hope, to honor them for surviving the cruel struggles they have been through, to make them believe that they matter, that they are a human being, and that they are not forgotten.
There was a great stigma with these kind of people having rough circumstances and the struggles that my subjects had to endure during their existence. Despite the fact that they all have this sort of gloominess and this extremely unfortunate life, I found them so uplifting and inspiring, there was no self-pity whatsoever, there was this sort of joy and the pleasure of being alive despite the fact that they were in this seemingly terrible situations, matter fact somebody who has that kind of resilience to be able to still have a smile back on your face is what attracted me in some sort of emotional way to document their lives.
قلي عماد الدين, Algeria, Setif