Light plays with a makeshift window screen in the Markazi refugee camp in Obock, Djibouti, where thousands of Yemeni refugees seek safety and security in spite of sweltering temperatures and harsh living conditions.
Photographer: Thana Faroq
Date: 2019
Since Yemen’s civil war began in 2014, tens of thousands of Yemenis have fled across the treacherous Bab al-Mandeb strait into Djibouti and Eritrea. Many have settled in Djibouti’s Markazi camp which has received some aid from the United Nations and Saudi Arabia.
This photograph is part of Thana Faroq’s collection Home: Between Lost and Found. Herself a Yemeni refugee now based in the Netherlands, Faroq is a photographer, artist, and educator who sought to document the oftentimes bleak reality of political asylum and the way her countrypeople continue to cope.
Her project mixes photography and short video footage from the camp. Many of her photographs hinge on lightplay. They can be cold and isolating, sometimes mundane, other times intimate, and maybe a personal accounting of her own experiences.
Below are additional photographs from the collection. Visit her website to see more of this collection and to view her other award-winning work.
All the above photographs were taken by Thana Faroq.