Portraits from Aleppo, Muhammed Muheisen shows us the whites of their eyes

August 28, 2012

With the constant stream of video grabs and smartphone pictures coming out of Egypt, Libya and now Syria, it is very easy to view these conflicts as almost unreal events. Although sometimes informative, the poor quality makes them seem almost unreal, like watching footage from a computer game.

So in this world where events, no matter how far flung, are captured by the actual people involved in the conflict and then broadcast by the world’s media, what is the role of the traditional photojournalist?

This set of portraits from Aleppo by Muhammed Muheisen for the Associated Press certainly show one such role. By taking his subjects off the streets and focusing our attentions onto their faces he forces us to look right into their eyes and see them for what they are, individual people.