{"id":22366,"date":"2012-09-19T16:39:42","date_gmt":"2012-09-19T12:39:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=22366"},"modified":"2013-01-02T11:54:47","modified_gmt":"2013-01-02T07:54:47","slug":"wessam-al-badry-an-uncompromising-photographer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-business\/middle-east-media-analysis\/wessam-al-badry-an-uncompromising-photographer\/","title":{"rendered":"Wessam al-Badry: An Uncompromising Photographer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Few things in life are black and white.<\/p>\n

For Wessam Al-Badry, however, matters concerning human rights \u2013 particularly those relating to women and children \u2013 leave no room for negotiation.<\/p>\n

The 28 year-old, Iraqi-born photojournalist now calls Nebraska home. Al-Badry\u2019s childhood experiences helped mould his unrelenting perspective, and his life struggles have left their indelible mark on his photography, which is a tribute to the strength and resiliency of women.<\/p>\n

Al-Badry was seven years old when the first Gulf War forced his family to flee their native Iraq in 1991 and seek shelter at a refugee camp in Rafah, Saudi Arabia. He still recalls how his mother led him and his four siblings though knee-deep mud until they found safety.<\/p>\n

From 1991 through 1994, he lived in the Saudi refugee camp where he shared a tent with his family. While his memories of that time are understandably grim, they are nevertheless complemented by his recollection of photojournalists who came to capture the camp\u2019s hopelessness with the aid of a camera.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile growing up in a refugee camp, I felt a renewed sense of humanity\u2019s kindness when I saw photojournalists snap pictures that would bring help for the people living there in despair,\u201d reflects Al-Badry. \u201cTo me, they were my super heroes; they represented freedom, hope and inspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, like most children who revere their heroes, Al-Badry aspired to be like the photojournalists he extolled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got my first camera while still at the refugee camp and started taking pictures,\u201d remembers Al-Badry. \u201cI was about nine years old and I traded a bag of marbles, three VHS tapes and a new button-down shirt for a 35 millimetre camera with no film and a pair of Reebok basketball shoes with another kid at the refugee camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1994, Al-Badry\u2019s family moved to a refugee relocation centre in Lincoln, Nebraska. Shortly thereafter Al-Badry\u2019s father walked out on them, leaving his mother to care for five children on her own in a new country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was 14, the eldest, and so it was understood that after my father left I would be the \u2018Man of the House\u2019,\u201d describes a contemplative Al-Badry. \u201cI saw my mother\u2019s struggles and I was privy to all her stresses and anxieties. I saw how she learned to become an independent woman\u2014getting a driver\u2019s license, bank account and renting a home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Al-Badry devotes himself to his family and his photography.<\/p>\n

Speaking about a recent exhibit of his photographs of Iraqi women refugees, which opened in August, he says, \u201cI want to show that these women are not weak and oppressed as stereotyped by society \u2013 they overcame adversity, war and culture shock to raise their families in new countries. Often, their husbands left or were killed in Iraq, leaving the women to act as the head of the family. The women lost a lot \u2026. yet they survived. My mother\u2019s fortitude and resilience allowed me to also survive and become the man I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al-Badry\u2019s exhibition of black and white portraits of Iraqi women received a warm reception and has attracted the support of venerable groups like the human rights organisation Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union, a national group which advocates for individual rights. The organisations have endorsed Al-Badry\u2019s work, shared information about his exhibits and made financial donations to support the refugee project.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used black and white film in a symbolic way to show that issues of human rights, women’s rights and refugee aid are \u2018black and white\u2019 \u2013 to say that humanity should get straight to the point and help others in need,\u201d elaborates Al-Badry.<\/p>\n

While women are the focus of the first part of his project, the second concentrates on the on-going suffering of Iraqi children who were made orphans by the war.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a child living in a refugee camp, I witnessed many of the atrocities \u2013 rape, kidnappings, beatings and human trafficking \u2013 that can befall these young victims. I experienced the sense of loss and upheaval, the sense of uncertainty that was prevalent. However, what I remember most is the strong feeling of trying to survive just one more day,\u201d says Al-Badry of his desire to capture and convey the desperate plight of these children.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Al-Badry hopes that his art will help challenge stereotypes and educate the international community about these realities. He also hopes it can facilitate a necessary dialogue between countries and cultures to move us toward a greater understanding and acceptance of one other.<\/p>\n

\u201cI live and hope to see humanity treat each other as human beings, regardless of race, sex or religion,\u201d he reflects.<\/p>\n

No shades of grey there.<\/p>\n

Engy Abdelkader is a Legal Fellow with the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, DC. Wessam Al-Badry\u2019s photos can be viewed at wesaamphoto.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ENGY ABDELKADER, CGNEWS: He grew up a refugee in Saudi Arabia and photojournalists became his superheroes. Now he’s a photographer himself <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":22367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,220,483,44,482],"tags":[14615,3579,7022,18321,14726,485,12384,358,18275,2020,177],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22366"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}