In 2014, the German photographer "Christoph Bangert" published his book "war porn", about the pictures he took while covering wars and conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Darfur. The book contained images that the media refused to publish for its horrible content; bodies showing signs of torture, dismembered corpses eaten by dogs, and a lot of bloody scenes. However, Christophe defended his photographs; "Yes, images of war must be violent and brutal, like war itself."
Christoph believe it is necessary to see horror in the pictures for many reasons; First because the incidents have already happened, second because we keep remembering that they happened. Perhaps this is true as images have perpetuated human tragedies, and made their memory more powerful. For example, when the mention of famine in Sudan comes, we remember the child starving on the ground, and an eagle standing behind her, waiting for her death to eat her, a photo taken by “Kevin Carter” in 1993, and he committed suicide in the following year.
It is not certain that the nature of his work was the first or only reason for his suicide, the man was suffering from many other problems, but it is certain that he suffered psychologically as a result of the horrific scenes he captured and lived during his work. He left a message in which he mentioned many reasons for his pain, including that the sight of corpses and starvation had haunted him for a long time. If this is the case of the foreign photographer who chose his profession by his own decision, then what is the case of the local photographer who did not own that decision.
Misery in the Shelter
“Abdullah Al-Muflihi” is a photographer from Aden. Seven years ago, he started his career in making short films. With the outbreak of the conflict, he turned to documenting the conditions of the displaced in the areas surrounding Aden, such as Lahj and Al-Anad; “You often hear about displacement stories, but to live in a camp for one day is another thing.” Abdullah visited As-Suwayda camp in Ma’rib governorate which he was visiting for the first time. They told him that a shell had fallen hours before his arrival to the camp, and that it had killed many children; “The camp is located on the mountains near the confrontations border. I wandered about in terror in the midst of the fragile volcanic sand, and the atmosphere saturated with suffocating dust. The residents complained to me that most of them suffer from chest diseases.”
In the camp, everyone works, and each one has a specific job. "I watched women fetch water and firewood, men dig a sewage pit in the hard rocks of the mountain, while children carry stones and hammers to repair damaged tents." Even a worn-out tent is not always available to everyone. "I saw a woman sitting in the open area. I asked her: Why don't you set up your tent? She replied: I can't because my children were killed and my husband is captive. This is the fifth time that I have been displaced. I wish I could die. She fell silent for a moment, then she cried hard."
Life in the IDP camps takes another form, as an eleven-year-old girl turns into a mother, taking care of her younger brothers and her sick father; "The girl became the mother of three brothers, the eldest of whom is no more than five years old. The young mother does all the work, brings water and firewood, cooks and washes, and takes care of her sick father." The little girl works all day, and her biggest dream is to go back to school; "I want to get back to my study. She said it in a tone that sticks in my mind until today."
However, the scenes of the Mareb camp were not the worst that Abdullah lived through. During the war, every you always observe some new tragedies; "A year later, I went to Makha and Tuhayta of Hodieda governorate, where I saw children die by starvation, buried alive under the sand."
Despite all this, the experience of the camps, as awful as they are, is less terrifying than finding yourself, without planning, in the middle of a battlefield...
Sudden entrance to fatal confrontation lines
"Majid Abdullah", worked as a media reported who capture photos and reported news of the battles since his graduation in 2017. He practiced his work cautiously, away from the sites of the clashes, until the first incident occurred. "On the 16th of Ramadan of 2018, we entered into a military site belonging to Ansar Allah group (Houthis) by mistake. Suddenly, a bomb hit the vehicle which was carrying us so that driver lost control of it and it flipped. Unexpectedly, we felt bullets rain down on us. We ran through the trees, I could hear the sound of the whirring of bullets passed above my head, we ran without shoes over broken glass and thorns, through the mines.” While under the intense of fire, Majed's life passed before his eyes; “I was running and thinking, all I worked for was lost, study, work, and dreams, and that at any moment a bullet would go through my head, and all will be over, or perhaps worst of all, that I would become a captive. I felt hopeless.” Majed finally succeeded in communicating with the Joint Forces Command who managed to save him. “I ran a distance of six kilometers until I reached the first point of the joint forces. When I arrived at their location, I fell down motionless and lost consciousness, then I spent several days in the hospital in which I physically recovered, but psychologically I was suffering for a period of time; I used to wake up from my sleep terrified by the sound of bullets and shells.”
A few days after the first incident, on the twenty-eighth of the same month, the second incident happened; “We penetrated for the second time into the lines of fire, and also by mistake, we were stopped by eight soldiers of the joint forces who investigated us to which side we were following, before I answered, the first shell fell, a second later, the second bomb hit nearby, and then the third hit the fuel tank of our vehicle which led to its ignition and explosion which burned the car in which my bag that contained all my personal documents and work equipment was burned with it. I do not clearly remember how I got out of the vehicle, all what I remember is the shirt I was wearing was on fire, and that I saw the eight joint forces soldiers lying on the ground, dead.” The story did not end at that point, the burning vehicle collided with a military vehicle carrying missiles, here was the major disaster. The explosions broke one after the other so quickly and the bodies were scattered everywhere, body parts and bodies without heads. We were sheltering with corpses from flying splinters, I ran barefoot, the rest of the clothes covering my body,
I couldn’t believe that we had finally arrived at Al-Khokha district safely. I was haunted by the scenes of corpses and fire in front of me. In Khokha I was hurried to the hospital where I have been subjected to treatment for psychological trauma, but the impacts of these catastrophic incidents dawdled in my memory for a long time.” Majjd Abdullah said.
After these dreadful incidents, Majed ceased reporting activity till he recovers from the negative impacts, but later, he bought new equipment, and decided to return to safe photography; "Currently, my work is limited to documenting humanitarian stories about those who live in constant displacement. I reported their sufferings; frequent forced movements as they are displaced from a place to another, after their hut got destroyed by the shells, so they were forced to displace again and again. Moreover, I covered the situation of the residents of some poor villages, especially in Hayis, who were killed by shrapnel and their livestock turned into parts burned mean as a result of missile attacks. I try as much as possible to convey their distress, and to stay away from the battlefronts.” In the midst of the horrific death images narrated by Abdullah and Majid, it was necessary to search for some joy.
A hopful picture of joy
"Ammat al-Rahman al-Afouri", undergraduate media college student in the radio and television department, has been practicing photography four years and publishing her pictures on her Facebook page. The pictures taken by Ammt al-Rahman did not go beyond the actual reality of a conflicting country so her photos included; displaced families, homeless children, hunger and misery. However, she was waiting for a different event, a call to joy, reassuring her that there is a beautiful life in the midst of this amount of pain. Last year, she heard about a children's fashion show that would be organized in Aden, it was the first event of this kind in Yemen so Ammat Rahman hurried to cover this event with another emotion, the feeling of happiness and the desire to forget, even for a while, the scorching sun that blazed her head as she wandered among people who lived in thatched houses, who did not have the slightest necessities of life. She hopped to forget the sight of the displaced in the open areas without shelter, the Hodeidah child with his body covered in rashes from the extreme heat, and to keep out of her imagination the face of the Al-Musaimeer assassinated girl whom she visited in the hospital, the girl who went out to fetch water, but a sniper’s bullet pierced her neck to come out of her eye. She wanted to forget all this and focus into the colorful clothes, the smiling faces, the lights. She is not the only one who wants to forget, all people have longed for joy to forget their miseries; "I posted the photos on my Facebook page which touched people's thirst for happy news through their interaction and comments." The feeling of pain returns to her when she sees the picture of the little model next to the picture of a half-naked displaced child in worn clothes, but that's okay, this is life, and life has many faces.
Ammat Al-Rahman is trying, in its own way, to adapt to psychological pressures; “I cure my grief with prayer.” As for Majed, grief is evident in his voice. “I get depressed, I often thought of leaving photography and pursuing another profession.” While Abdullah decided to maintain an optimistic view; "My feeling that I am conveying people's suffering, and that my photos have an effect that can change a person's life for the better, all of this makes me feel comfortable, and gives me the strength to resume my work."
A war photographer usually chooses his profession, decides to travel to the battle fronts, fully recognizing what awaits him there. However, in Yemen, you do not always have this option. In most cases, the reality of the situation dictates that you have a profession that you have not decided to choose, and for which you are not ready, such as moving from your lecture hall to the battlefronts, and turning from an amateur photography into a war photographer. To conclude, I believe that war photographers in Yemen who work on documenting the atrocities of the war, do not lack courage, but they lack some training and qualification and a lot of appreciation for their work. Because they are the ones who preserve for us the memory of the war, their photos remain the sure evidence of the tragedy that occurred when the memory of the witnesses have died out.
