THE MOST IMPORTANT PICTURE
Photography by Brendan Bannon, 2015
“The Most Important Picture” Lesson Plan
Resources for this lesson:
Brendan Bannon is a photographer and teacher who facilitates workshops with youth in refugee camps. These workshops are an opportunity for students to express their lives as they contend with loss, trauma and dislocation through the use of photography and writing. In 2014 Bannon taught a course to Syrian youth in refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan and among his students, two in particular stood out as photographers and as storytellers: Fatima Ahmed, a 19-year-old war widow and mother of three, who lived in the Za’atari Refugee Camp in Jordan; and Hani Al Moulia, a 20-year-old refugee from Syria who lived in the Bekaa valley in Lebanon with his parents and four siblings. Prior to the outbreak of war in Syria, he planned to go to the Sorbonne in Paris; he has since emigrated to Canada, where he was named a member of the Prime Minister’s Youth Council in 2016.
In 2015 Bannon received a small grant from The Aftermath Project to further support Hani and Fatima’s visual storytelling work as part of Bannon’s “The Most Important Picture: Syria.” In these lessons students will:
Learn the overall context of the Syrian refugee crisis;
Deepen their understanding by analyzing and discussing the insightful photographs of Fatima and Hani;
Consider Brendan Bannon’s workshop methodology and use of photography as a process to support youth currently living, and surviving, in refugee camps.
Guiding questions framing “The Most Important Picture” lessons include:
How can photographs tell stories?
What role can visual storytelling play in addressing experiences of dislocation, grief and loss.
A different kind of life.
Yes, our life is hard and filled with difficulty. We are in an unbearable crisis. Despite that we still exercise and build skills for sports. We will improve ourselves. We will run, climb fences, lift weights, play football and ride the bikes that no one cares for. We won't give up. We will prove to the world that we are still children, adults and old men. We are Syrian refugees.
The fence and the people are woven together into one fabric. Fences are the fabric of our lives.
We are in an unbearable crisis. Despite that we still exercise and build skills for sports. We will improve ourselves. We will run, climb fences, lift weights, play football, ride bikes that no one cares for. We will even pull rope. We won't give up. We will prove to the world that we are still children, adults and old men. We are Syrian refugees.
This is the most important picture to me because it is for my husband who was killed: "You are the cause of all crises. You are everything in my life. I have to see you even if you are far from me. Inside of me there is a picture no one but I can see, a fire burning my heart a hundred times. I can't tolerate its flame anymore. I have no choice but to picture my agony... and transform it into a little picture the whole world can see." She also wrote "Fire burned my husband and now it wants to burn me. This crisis and pain I have endured. This anguish didn't want to have mercy on me. It burned my husband. Oh I hear his voice in pain and in my dreams. Only fire. It wants to burn me and eat my body, so my soul could embrace his soul.”
Absence From the Family. He is the grandfather of this family. He was the one who produced hope for the family. After the crisis he became a stranger, even to himself.
My Child's Smile. I wish this smile were always on his face, so that my heart continues to beat.
"I don't ask for anyone to have mercy on me or take care of me. I only ask you to look at this picture, which shows my reality and tells the story of my life. A life which became full of funeral shrouds and grief... The Kaaba is Black. Nothing compares to it's beauty, but this coffin is white and nothing compares to its ugliness. After so many crises in life, and the ones wrapped in white, during my dreams I can only see my son shrouded in in white."
A Tearful Laugh. It was simultaneously funny and sad when I asked my mom: “Why did you bring the house keys with you?” And without an answer everyone began to laugh, because these keys are useless. They are the keys to a house that is almost completely destroyed. My mom’s laugh quickly turned into tears... that paved their path onto her cheeks and silenced the sound of that brilliant laugh… I also cried after that scene.
My tent has become my university, a lab, a studio, a theater… And in it I have become the teacher, the professor, the student, the guard, the actor, the dancer, and even the photographer…
I always try to look and listen to the camp from a distance, from a high point, as if I’m an orchestra conductor. I stand for a long time, listening to those amazing musical pieces that carry the sounds of children crying, parents’ angel, laughter, kitchen utensils, food, birds nearby, wood being broken. The musical pieces end with the beginning of the night.
I, too, am like these caged birds, but they are in a cage, while my chain is the present moment. I no longer know who I am in front of these birds.
Pain... Missing... Distance... Adoration... Beauty... Tents... Cold... Hunger... Identity... A Student... An Actor... A Dancer... A Photographer... A City... A Country... A Question... An Exit... No Answer... Hope... A Future... Loss... A Writer... Being away from home... Society... Routine... Return... And a right... Do you hear what my hand is screaming?