A person’s home may strongly resemble someone else’s house. However, each home is unique and irreplaceable to its inhabitants, as the place’s specific details become the backdrop for their lives. For refugees, including those from Iraq, the loss of home becomes part of the story, and a trauma within itself. Since January 2014, a tenth of the Iraqi population has been displaced by Iraq’s war against ISIS.
The first Iraqi photography agency, Metrography, led by editor-in-chief Stefano Carini, decided to depict Iraqi lives in a way that respects individual Iraqis’ experiences. Metrography is committed to balanced and ethical journalism; it represents local photographers from different backgrounds who speak Arabic, Kurdish, English, Assyrian, Turkish and Turkmen along with dozens of local dialects.
Metrography has just launched interactive website “Map of Displacement,” a project which attempts to encapsulate the stories of survivors of the six largest displacement events since January 2014. Kurdish Iraqi photographers for Metrography, Metrography’s editorial team, and writers from all over the world worked together to create a diverse and balanced visual and narrative record of those who fled.