Award-winning American photographer Nish Nalbandian has spent three years covering the war in northern Syria. His first book, A Whole World Blind, depicts fighters on the frontline, as well as everyday people eking out a living amidst the ruins. He says the book's title came about because "the world is not seeing what's happening here, not really looking. It's hard to look at things like this. And it should be."
20 April 2013: Two YPG fighters stand in a damaged garage in the Sheikh Maqsood District of Aleppo, on the front line in the fight against Syrian government forcesNish Nalbandian
Writer and documentary film director Greg Campbell, who contributes an essay to the book, says: "The best photojournalism serves to remind audiences that events occurring in distant lands are not happening to some strange and unknowable species. They are happening to people who could be our own sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters. Nish Nalbandian is among those rare photographers who cover war by covering the people who suffer through it."
The photographer says: "While the war was never out of sight or mind, I was struck more by how normal everyday life seemed in the midst of the carnage. Amid the events that cause this damage, life goes on, and people continue about their business. They can't do anything else."
18 April 2013: Two men sit outside a closed shop in the heavily damaged Bustan al Pasha district of AleppoNish Nalbandian6 April 2014: A girl answers a question in class at a school in Maarat al-Numan, IdlibNish Nalbandian5 April 2014: Two children look at destroyed buildings in Maarat al-Numaan, Idlib. The photographer says: 'At the time I made this picture, the area was controlled by Jamal Marouf’s Syrian Revolutionaries Front (SRF), but was still contested by Syrian government forces from their Wadi Deif and Hamadiyah bases about 2K away. SRF, which had recently displaced Isis from the area, was itself displaced by al-Qaeda Affiliated Jabhat al Nusra (JAN) later in 2014. Wadi Deif and Hamadiyah bases were captured by Islamist rebels including JAN and Ahrar ash-Sham in December 2014'Nish Nalbandian10 February 2013: A woman wounded by Syrian government shelling is wheeled into a field hospital on a stretcher in the Shaar district of AleppoNish Nalbandian6 April 2014: Children take English lessons in a classroom in Maarrat al-Numaan, Idlib Province. The local school, damaged by the fighting between Syrian government and opposition forces, was reopened in early 2014Nish Nalbandian18 April 2013: A missile fired by Syrian government forces flies over Aleppo toward the north. The photographer says: 'I counted more than 50 rockets fired by Syrian government forces that night, arcing silently up through the clouds'Nish Nalbandian
Nalbandian writes: "Before I went, a more seasoned conflict photographer had told me you can edge up to the line and keep as much distance as you want (as long as the line does not move), so you can be in relative safety. And that turned out to be true. Most of Aleppo that I was able to visit is opposition-held territory they call the "Free Areas" (areas held by the government are called "Occupied Territory" on this side of the line). Within these free areas I live and move while I am here. And the people of Aleppo live there too. Just like people live in your hometown. They shop for food or go to a restaurant.
"When I go to the front lines, I crawl through holes in buildings, running behind buses crashed crazily, blocking snipers' views, until I can peek out from the fighting holes and see government positions only 50 or 100-metres away. And despite the ongoing potshots, the fighters offer you tea, or make you have lunch with them. And as you talk, you realise that you no longer hear the bullets cracking overhead unless they are close enough to affect you, and you look around and people are laughing, joking, eating, watching TV, all the while carrying weapons. A game show blares as the watch changes and a new group of fighters goes out to relieve the guys on the line."
20 April 2013: A YPG fighter sprints across an intersection to avoid Syrian government sniper fire in the Ashrafieh district of Aleppo. Opposition fighters often place vehicles like this bus to provide cover and concealment from sniper fireNish Nalbandian19 April 2013: Rukan, a female Kurdish fighter and YPG unit leader, aims her weapon from a fighting position overlooking the front line with Syrian government forces in the Sheikh Maqsood district of Aleppo. Rukan was killed in a government air strike in 2014Nish Nalbandian25 April 2013, Old City, Aleppo: An opposition fighter prepares to fire a rock with a large makeshift slingshot toward Syrian government positions in the Old City of Aleppo. This Unesco World Heritage Site has sustained a signficant amount of damage during fighting between opposition groups and the Syrian government during the country's bitter civil warNish Nalbandian10 February 2013: Apartment buildings, offices, and stores along Al Mutanabbi Street, damaged by heavy fighting between Syrian government troops and opposition forces during clashes in 2012. By 2013 this area had become a perpetual front line. In the background you can see the Aleppo City Hall building, from which government snipers controlled the areaNish Nalbandian19 April 2013: The Citadel of AleppoNish Nalbandian6 April 2014: An SRF unit commander paces during a battle as a Syrian government battle tank burns in the background on the strategic M5 Aleppo-Damascus Highway near the town of Hesh, Idlib Province. The SRF offensive started the night before and overtook several miles of the strategic roadNish Nalbandian19 April 2013: A Kurdish fighter named Garee hurries toward her headquarters in the Sheikh Maqsood district of AleppoNish Nalbandian7 February 2013: A man wounded by Syrian government shelling is wheeled into a field hospital on a stretcher in the Shaar district of AleppoNish Nalbandian
Nalbandian writes: "I'd like to acknowledge that I have only made pictures from one side of this conflict. I do not have access to the other side, and surely there is great suffering on the other side of the line as well."
