This young girl lives in Lebanon, escaping the violence next door in her homeland of Syria. It’s my privilege to be able to speak with her directly and to be able to document her creative mind. Rather than photographing her without her knowledge, highlighting the degradation around her, it’s my aim to showcase her and her friends, the real heroes in this environment. Their life is almost unimaginable for most, having lost their homeland and living in a tent city where even the most basics of life are absent. Unlike the children of my friends, they cannot attend a school, lack a place to bathe themselves or to attend to their needs in private. They present themselves to the world in this series with only the positive, perhaps as if to shield us from the difficulties they face on an hourly basis. I admire them without limits, and see them as true heroes in this most difficult world. Hasselblad 501CM 100mm C lens Ilford Delta 100 Gitzo Series 5 Arca-Swiss B1 Ilford MGIVWT 11x14 Kodak Selenium Toner #hasselblad #portraits #lebanon #lebanon #portraitvision #syrian #refugees #refugee #unicef #civilwar #syrianrefugees #filmisnotdead #portrait #mediumformatfilm #natgeo #natgeotravel #natgeoyourshot @natgeo @hasselblad #nationalportraitgallery @unicef #portraitpage #portraitphotography #portraitstream #ilforddelta100 @ilfordphoto (at Zahlé, Lebanon) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cfh9rR1uSmJ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=