Valerian Mazataud: Syrian Refugees in North Jordan (fall 2012)

Syria was on the front pages of the newspapers but slowly drifting towards the end pages. Still most of the papers were about combat, and few about refugees, even less outside of Turkey. Jordan then hosted the second largest refugee community, and figures never stopped growing since then.
For the first time, I left with the idea of financing a personal project using media assignments. During my time in North Jordan, I worked with Montreal daily La Presse, Jobboom magazine, La Gazette des Femmes, as well as NGO Handicap International.
At the beginning of the project was a simple question. « What did you keep from your previous life ? » Sometimes it was an object, sometimes a memory, other times a simple gesture. Through these images, I am trying to portrait the transitory status in which these refugees live, neither present in, nor absent of the society. My approach is that of a metaphorical documentary, mixing concrete souvenirs with intangible feelings of uprooting.

/all photos © Valerian Mazataud/

For more on Mazataud’s projects, visit Focus Zero.

For more on current events in Syria, read a story from Homs on The Guardian, and an article on Syria’s dispossessed on The Independent.