Abstract
Award-winning reportage illustrator
Most of the interviews were done in tents and small houses where refugees live, and most of the interviewees were men. I was accompanied by a translator and a public awareness officer from Médecins Sans Frontières.
Carpets were laid on concrete floors or sometimes even bare soil. There were no chairs, or tables and they cooked using basic gas stoves. It was cold outside, but warm tea was always offered. Some interviews were carried out in hairdressers, or mobile phone and TV repair shops. We had an interview in a bakery and others in restaurants.
I asked refugees why they had left Syria and how they had managed to get out, I asked about their experiences as refugees and what they thought the future held.
Most of the young men I interviewed left Syria because they did not want to get drafted into the military, some of them had also fled from active duty. Many people, especially from the Kurdish regions of Syria in the north-east, left because the economic situation had become so bad. There were no jobs. Food and fuel prices were high, and there were frequent power cuts. Aside from this there were, of course, the people who used to live in cities like Damascus, Aleppo, and Homs, who were forced to flee because of the fighting.
At the beginning of each conversation I asked the translator to inform the interviewees that I was an illustrator creating a series of drawings documenting refugees’ circumstances and that the drawings and interviews might get published internationally. Some of those I met were reluctant to be interviewed and photographed, as they were afraid that if they spoke out either they or their relatives could get into trouble with one of the warring parties back in Syria. However, they were okay as long as I focused on their experiences in the camp, and not what happened in Syria. On the other hand, there were many men who were not afraid they might appear in the media. They told me about their criticisms of the Syrian regime, the Free Syrian Army, or the jihadis.
Interviewing women was more difficult because of their culture, and those I did interview were connected to MSF. One interview was conducted in the organisation’s mental health department, in the presence of a young Iraqi Kurdish psychotherapist. The patient was a young mother, whose husband was arrested by the police two years ago. She told me that she hadn’t heard anything from him since, and has lost all hope of ever seeing him again. She cried as she told me that her children always get sad when they see other children playing with their fathers. “It breaks my heart,” she said.
Credit: Olivier Kugler
Sometimes the interviews were difficult to conduct as the translator’s English was not very good. I will also admit that my knowledge of the situation in Syria was a bit patchy at the beginning. I often had to repeat questions and ask for more explanations and found the encounters difficult on an emotional level. I was very aware of my privileged position, holding a German passport and a ticket for a return flight. The interviewees on the other hand were in a desperate situation with little hope of improving their circumstances in the near future. I was often approached and asked for advice by those wanting to leave for England or Germany.
When I returned to London, I began to look again at the photographs I had taken and wanted to draw most of them, starting to work on small sketches, based on the images. I then started to work on the larger pencil drawings, which were then scanned and coloured digitally. While working, I often listened to recordings of the interviews. It is very important for me to have met the people I draw. I work best if I have a connection with those I am depicting.