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#flashHeader{visibility:visible !important;}Lynsey Addario entered Syria this year on assignment for The New York Times to show a broader, more human aspect of the conflict there. Her work took her to Aleppo Province, home to Syria’s largest city and site of some of the fiercest fighting. In a phone conversation with James Estrin from London, Ms. Addario, 39, discussed her recent work. Their conversation has been edited.
Was this the first time that you’ve been in Syria in the last two years
This was the first time in. I’ve been holding off, because I didn’t feel ready to go full-on back into combat, and into Aleppo. I wanted to be able to cover the civilian and humanitarian situation, but in a way I felt like I could actually contribute to the story.
There are great war photographers covering Aleppo, like Goran Tomasevic. His work alone is phenomenal. Tyler Hicks has done beautiful work, so I didn’t really feel like I was in a position to add anything. When it became clear that there were some stories that I can do that were relatively safe, in areas that were fully under rebel control and with translators and fixers that The New York Times team really trusted, I felt that maybe it was the right time to give it a shot.
From the outside, Syria looked like Armageddon. It just looked like full-on combat around every corner, but I knew from my experience covering war that war zones are never what they appear from the outside.
There are always pockets of calm and neighborhoods where life goes on. And that’s not always visible through the media because the photos that get printed are always of full-on combat.
When I went into northern Aleppo Province with David Kirkpatrick, it was incredible because there were still people working in the fields. There were barbershops that were full. Lines f people waiting to get their hair cut. And of course in the distance you could hear artillery rounds landing, but it seemed like there were areas and pockets of calm.
The scary thing about Syria is that even if you’re in an area that seems calm, there are still airstrikes â€" there isn’t a no-fly zone in place. And President Assad has shown that he indiscriminately kills civilians, and there are airstrikes all around the country. So at any moment the veneer of calm can be shattered with an airstrike or with an artillery round. You can never be too comfortable or too confident.
You also photographed some of the refugee camps.
We just went to the refugee camps in Turkey and camps clo! se to the! Turkish border. Basically on the other side of the Turkish border, and those were camps controlled by the Syrians that the Turkish N.G.O., I.H.H., is really running most of that camp and trying to provide people with two hot meals a day and whatever else they can give.
They were handing out shoes on the day we were there. There is a lack of aid in all of the parts of Syria that we went to.
We found many villages that hadn’t received anything. We did not go into Aleppo â€" into the main city of Aleppo â€" so maybe it ended up there but we certainly found many villages that hadn’t received anything.
What were the camps like
The camps were in horrible condition. I’ve photographed refugee camps around the world â€" throughout Africa, the Middle East, all over. These Syrian camps â€" they don’t really have anything. They’ve been flooded, they’re muddy, they are not at all hygienic. There’s raw sewage everywhere.People have very little. It’s pretty grim, and it’s cold, and some people have been given little space heaters, but for the most part it’s very clear that the people fled and did not flee with many belongings and do not have much.
Lynsey Addario for The New York Times Workers in Kilis, Turkey, loaded bags of flour provided by the Turkish Red Crescent onto a truck bound for Syria. President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has blocked United Nations agencies from the shortest, safest route into rebel territory, across the opposition-controlled border with Turkey.In conversations you had with the refugees, what did they have to say
They basically couldn’t believe that the outside world wasn’t! helping ! them more. To them, it’s very clear that Syria is in a very dire situation, the war has been going on almost two years, and tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and many houses have been destroyed. There’s flour that isn’t being delivered; villages don’t have bread. These are basic things, and they can’t understand why if the West got so involved in Libya and Iraq and in all these other countries why no one is stepping up and stepping in in Syria. They are really confused and angry.
You also photographed refugees in Lebanon. What were their conditions
Lebanon was an incredible scene because of the numbers.
Not everyone that’s gone to Lebanon is registered. I think there are 200,000 refugees that have been registered and then another 175,000 that have not been registered, so there are almst 400,000 refugees living in Lebanon alone. And the Lebanese government doesn’t want to acknowledge them because they don’t want the same situation when there were Palestinian camps all over Lebanon. So since the refugees are not being acknowledged, there aren’t really camps being set up.
You have refugees living in storefronts, in garages, underneath bakeries. You have them living inside of other people’s homes. You have four or five families in one house, under one roof. There are labor camps that used to be set up for seasonal laborers near the borders of Syria in Lebanon, and those camps have just been taken over by refugees and they are absolutely horrendous conditions. There is raw sewage everywhere. They have been given nothing, absolutely nothing. They aren’t getting medical checks, the children have skin diseases. Most of the parents complained that their children had diarrhea and stomach conditions. They’re living in absolute squalor.
It’s unbelievable that this i! s happeni! ng. The refugee situation has reached one million and they’re living in all the countries surrounding Syria and there’s just not enough aid.
We were talking about showing the full scope of the Syrians’ experience, as you said there’s this absolutely fantastic conflict photography â€" Goran, and Tyler …
And Alessio Romenzi has also done some incredible work.
But that tells a small part of the experience there. I know it’s profoundly dangerous in much of the country, so there seems to be swaths of the story that we’re not getting. We’re not seeing very much of the human toll.
Exactly. From the outside, no one would have any idea that the combat hasn’t overtaken the entire country. I think it’s an incredibly important part of the situation to cover. I thinkit’s the most important part because that’s where the lives are being lost and that’s where civilians are paying the highest price.
But there are people who are paying huge prices in terms of the humanitarian situation that is not really being covered because most photojournalists feel that if they’re going to risk their life, they should go to where the action is because those are the images that are going to get published. Those are the images that are really going to get out there.
And I understand that and I have great respect for the photographers that have been doing that, and I personally don’t feel strongly enough to be doing that right now. I think I felt like, what can I do And I do think it’s important to cover what’s happening with the other side in Syria. The great risk with that is kidnapping. [Ms. Addario was one of four Times journalists held for six days after they were captured while covering the conflict between government and rebel forces in Libya.] Many ! journalis! ts that have been kidnapped and disappeared in the past two years. Nothing goes without risk in that country.
Is there anything else our readers should know
I think that what’s also being portrayed a lot is the foreign fighters. There are extremists and fundamentalists fighting with the rebels, but there is also a huge number of Syrians that just want to live their lives.
There are ways to help rebel-controlled territory in the way of aid and food, and I think it’s important for journalists and the readers alike to really focus on the humanitarian side of this as well as the combat.
Lynsey Addario for The New York Times A woman from Homs, Syria, with five of her seven children outside their makeshift tnt on farmland outside of Saidnayel, said life was better before the challenge to the Assad government. “Those who started this have moved abroad and left,†she said. “Before we were middle class, and now we are beggars.â€Follow @lynseyaddario, @JamesEstrin and @nytimesphoto on Twitter. Lens is also on Facebook.
