David Gross Photography

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Inside-Outside Project { 31 images } Created 21 Nov 2014

The Syrian Civil war has created over 3 million refugees in the surrounding countries of Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, and Turkey, over half of whom are children. The physical effects of the war on children can be shown, but how can we see the psychological effects? How can we present refugee children as generic victims? How can we change how they are seen by the public, from exotic, distant, victimized, refugees to children like their own?
In 2013, I created the “Inside-Outside Project” with my partner, Mieke Strand to address these questions. That year, we went to Turkey to hold art classes and photograph the Syrian refugees.
The work combines formal, dignified portraits of children with drawings the children have made. The portraits use a painterly lighting style we associate with dignity and individuality, rather than “street” photojournalistic styles, to present the children as our equals. The drawings expose their thoughts: hidden trauma; daily pressures; the ideologies of the adults who control them; hopes and dreams for the future.
The idea for the project began 10 years ago when I was covering the aftermath of the south Asian tsunami, and I saw children’s paintings of the events. They addressed a problem I’d struggled with for a long time, having photographed mass graves and war crimes in Kosovo and Iraq: how to connect the evidence I was photographing to the events that created it.
The project is on-going effort. My intention is to create from this work three parts: a photographic and visual documentary of the effects of war and disaster; an Internet archive of drawings of war and disaster; a methodology for creating and capturing the drawings.
Please download the free iPad app from Apple iTunes — search for “Inside-Outside”.
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  • Syrian refugee girl (name withheld) at a the Friendship Syrian school.
    140108-DG-1080111.jpg
  • Ghaidaa, age 16, from Idlib, a Syrian refugee boy at a the Free Syria school.
    131215-DG-154067.jpg
  • "Two planes drop bombs on the people. The children are crying, and the father has lost his hands." Drawing by Syrian girl, age 13. (Topic for this session: dealing with loss.) (Note: Arabic writing removed from top-right of image)
    131208-DG-083184.jpg
  • "Will be the next day better." A drawing by a Syrian refugee child of her idea of a good future.
    131218-DG-184847.jpg
  • Ghaidaa', age 15, from Aleppo, a syrian refugee girl from the Free Syria school, during an art class at a local tea garden.
    131217-DG-174703.jpg
  • Sham, age 16, from Homs, a Syrian refugee girl from the Free Syria school, during an art class at a local tea garden.
    131217-DG-174708.jpg
  • "Black clouds. A mother crying for her son, baby, and sister. She lost 3 family members." Drawing by Syrian girl, age 13. (Topic for this session: dealing with loss.) (Note: Last name removed from top-right)
    131208-DG-083176.jpg
  • "This drawing shows that some people are fighting in the war just for money." Drawing by Syrian girl, age 13. (Topic for this session: dealing with loss.)
    131208-DG-083174.jpg
  • Syrian refugee girl (name withheld) from the Free Syria school, during an art class at a local tea garden.
    131215-DG-153710.jpg
  • Safiya, age 15, from Idlib, is a Syrian refugee student at a the Free Syria school.
    131215-DG-153813.jpg
  • Abdullah, age 18, from Hama, is a Syrian refugee student at a the Free Syria school.
    131215-DG-153964.jpg
  • Ameer, age 15, from Idlib, is a Syrian refugee student at a the Free Syria school.
    131215-DG-154037.jpg
  • Abdul-Rahman, age 18, from Idlib, a Syrian refugee boy at the Free Syria school.
    131215-DG-154207.jpg
  • "A before and after scene. Before, there is a child swinging, flowers, balloons. After, the streets are filled with dead people, Assad's army killing everyone." Drawing by Syrian girl, age 13. (Topic for this session: dealing with loss.)
    131208-DG-083178.jpg
  • A drawing of "bad things" by a Syrian refugee child in the Free Syria School. The class was taught by David Gross. The exercise involved quick drawings, of 2 minutes each, in three parts.<br />
The first step was a pencil drawing. The student drew a symbolic border, then added elements that were "bad things." Next, the bad things were colored, to give them "life." David led the students through a fast, yogic stretching movement to add the physical experience of openness. Finally, the student painted over the bad with "good things," in bright colors, giving the experience of replacing the bad with the good. The students told him that they loved the experience, especially the stretching exercise!
    140119-DG-1193054.jpg
  • Gift, age 18, from Idlib, a Syrian refugee girl at a the Free Syria school, during an art class at a local tea garden.
    131217-DG-174738.jpg
  • Syrian refugee girl (name withheld) at a the Jesuit Refugee Service sponsored intensive language program held in a mosque in Jbeil.
    150227-DG-2275877.jpg
  • Joud, age 12, from Aleppo, is a Syrian refugee child at a the Torches of Freedom Syrian school.
    140116-DG-1162088.jpg
  • Syrian refugee child at a the Friendship Syrian school.
    140108-DG-1080054.jpg
  • "There is a hospital in the upper right, a mother crying for her son in the lower left. The child in the bottom center was eating a candy bar when a bomb blew his head off. The girl who drew this witnessed it. He remained standing for a few moments with the candy bar after it happened." Drawing by Syrian girl, age 13. (Topic for this session: dealing with loss.)
    131208-DG-083190.jpg
  • A drawing by a Syrian refugee child of her idea of a good future.
    131218-DG-184827.jpg
  • Alaa’, age 15, from Aleppo  is a syrian refugee student at a the Free Syria school.
    131215-DG-153839.jpg
  • Ghada, age 13, from Aleppo, at a intensive language center in Jbeil, Lebanon, supported by the Jesuit Refugee Service.
    150227-DG-2275862.jpg
  • "A mother comes into her house to find one child dead, the other one crying. The girl's name (at the top) is bleeding." Drawing by Syrian girl, age 13. (Topic for this session: dealing with loss.)
    131208-DG-083185.jpg
  • During the war: a plane drops bombs on our house. Drawing by a 10 year old Syrian boy. (Topic for session: draw your impression of life before, during and after the war.)
    131212-DG-123423.jpg
  • Syrian refugee girl in a school in Beirut supported by the Jesuit Refugee Service.
    150302-DG-3025970.jpg
  • Syrian refugee boy at a intensive language center in Jbeil, Lebanon, supported by the Jesuit Refugee Service.
    150227-DG-2275911.jpg
  • "A big bomb falls from a plane. All the people died and their bodies are in pieces." Drawing by Syrian girl, age 13. (Topic for this session: dealing with loss.)
    131208-DG-083181.jpg
  • Artist: Boy, age 11<br />
Title: “The Scary Monster”<br />
Topic for this session: Scary bad things in two colors.<br />
<br />
Khalid recalls: all his friends say something nice about him, that he helps people. He offers friends food, or anything they need. He jokes with his friends. Sometimes during the activity he forgets himself and starts to sing. He is a very natural, grounded personality, very instinctual. He does things without thinking. When asked about the painting, he said it is about nothing, he said, I means nothing.<br />
<br />
He said, black is for scariness, and red is for blood.<br />
Ezgi asked, is this a painting of a monster? The boy said, yes.<br />
Ezgi said, let’s talk with this monster. What you want to say to him? The boy said, I am not afraid of you.<br />
Ezgi said, what did the monster say to you?The boy said, the monster says, no, you are afraid of me.<br />
Answer him, Ezgi said.<br />
The boy said a loud, laughing voice, I am not afraid of you!<br />
Khalid said, when you’re laughing he won’t take you seriously. Say what you mean. So the boy said, using an Arabic expression, I will curse your father if you hurt me!
    140117-DG-1172242.jpg
  • Drawn by a Syrian refugee girl in a tea garden in Reyhanli. A family in the snow.<br />
Topic for session: Draw the future you hope for.
    131218-DG-184831.jpg
  • Rita, age 8, from Aleppo, is a Syrian refugee child at a the Friendship Syrian school.
    140110-DG-1100601.jpg