In 2003 a friend of mine asked if Josh and I wanted to go to Syria with his writers group. I was like, “hells Yes”! but then one minute later I said “Oh Hells no”! I’m not really that crazy………
But alas I did go, with my husband Josh and a group of other really great people. I remember that while we were there, the hangings of American Military happened in Falluja and they declared that all Americans in the middle east should leave or be killed. I was really scared and wanted to leave, I am as far away as you can get from a war photographer and I didn’t want to be in the middle of any conflict, but i’m glad we stayed. The people I met there, in Homs, Allepo, Damascus and many other cities where now there is only desolation, were very kind and so family oriented. Picnics happened all the time and all over the place, along the highway and in every green spot of grass they could find. It was utterly beautiful to see people living like this, so warm and inviting to us. And now, to see the images from those lands I visited makes my heart ache to think of all the beautiful children and families who are suffering. I remember distinctly one day in Allepo, the oldest city in Syria, I was photographing and realized I was being followed by about 15 children, they were laughing and giggling and I think to them I might have been one of the first white people they had seen, which for me wouldn’t be the first time I was in that situation, I remember loving those kids and wishing I could speak with them and laugh too. I remember a beautiful place that was Syria.
