The Syria I Found Again reflects on return, memory, and the emotional terrain of a homeland altered by war. Created after the fall of the Assad regime, the work emerges from my return to Syria as both a photojournalist and someone retracing the places that shaped my earliest sense of home.
Moving through Damascus and other sites tied to my past, I photographed spaces where personal memory and national history converge: a monastery from my childhood, streets marked by absence and endurance, and the prison cell where my father was once held. These places carry the weight of private remembrance while bearing witness to a country living through a profound transition.
Rather than focusing on political change alone, the work considers its human aftermath. The photographs linger on what survives in the wake of violence and exile: family histories, spiritual traces, gestures of resilience, and the quiet persistence of everyday life. They explore the tension between familiarity and estrangement, asking what it means to return to a place that is at once deeply known and irrevocably changed.
At its core, this project is about searching for belonging in the ruins and continuities of Syria. It is an attempt to gather fragments of memory, history, and loss into a visual language of return.
Artist Bios
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Salwan Georges
Salwan Georges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning visual journalist whose work explores the human impact of war, climate change, and displacement through stories of survival, memory, identity, and resilience. Based in the United States, he reports both nationally and internationally, often returning to places where global events intersect with personal history.
Georges spent a decade as a staff photojournalist at The Washington Post, reporting from more than 50 countries, before going independent in 2026. In 2020, he shared the Pulitzer Prize for the Post’s coverage of the climate crisis. He was named International Photographer of the Year by Pictures of the Year International in 2021 and by the National Press Photographers Association in 2023 and 2024.
His work has taken him from the front lines of Ukraine to post-earthquake Turkey and Syria, from Arctic military bases to rural African communities protecting endangered wildlife. In the United States, he has documented the fentanyl epidemic, racial justice movements, migration, inequality, and presidential elections.
His photographs have been exhibited internationally, including at Visa pour l’Image, Xposure International Photography Festival, Photoville, and the Library of Congress, which holds his long-term work on Arab American communities in its permanent collection.
Organizations
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Photoville
Founded in 2011 in Brooklyn, NY, Photoville was built on the principles of addressing cultural equity and inclusion, which we are always striving for, by ensuring that the artists we exhibit are diverse in gender, class, and race.
In pursuit of its mission, Photoville produces an annual, city-wide open air photography festival in New York City, a wide range of free educational community initiatives, and a nationwide program of public art exhibitions.
By activating public spaces, amplifying visual storytellers, and creating unique and highly innovative exhibition and programming environments, we join the cause of nurturing a new lens of representation.
Through creative partnerships with festivals, city agencies, and other nonprofit organizations, Photoville offers visual storytellers, educators, and students financial support, mentorship, and promotional & production resources, on a range of exhibition opportunities.
For more information about Photoville visit, www.photoville.com
The Syria I Found Again
Featuring: Salwan Georges
Locations
View Location Details Download a detailed map of this location Brooklyn Bridge Park – Emily Warren Roebling Plaza1 Water St
Brooklyn, NY 11201
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The views and opinions expressed in this exhibit are those of the exhibition artists and partners and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Photoville or any other participants and partners of the Photoville Festival.
