Ordinary citizens are increasingly overlooked in Western reporting on the Syrian conflict. All too often, they are merely present in the background, as extras, supplanted by the overwhelming focus on ISIS terror, the military conflict, and the refugee crisis. With this selection of photographs from Eastern Ghouta and the Bekaa Valley, Artino aims to highlight the human side of the conflict. Central to this selection is the resilience of the people he met during his travels through the besieged city of Eastern Ghouta and in a refugee camp in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. He depicts individuals struggling to maintain their humanity despite inhumane situations of siege, hunger, bombardments, oppression, and injustice.
Artino was born in Damascus, where he studied communications at university. When protests against the Assad regime broke out in March 2011, he was working as a sales representative at Apple. But he soon took to the streets to demand respect for human rights and denounce injustice. As a public activist, he was quickly sought and hunted down by the regime. In 2013, he had the opportunity to fully dedicate himself to his great passion: photography. At the time, the regime was besieging Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, where many opponents of the regime had settled. Reuters news agency asked Artino to document the human rights violations. With his camera as a witness, he documented how the lives of Syrian citizens turned into hell. In 2014, Artino settled as a volunteer in the al-Jaraheyah refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley. At the end of 2015, Artino came to Belgium. He was then wanted in both Syria and Lebanon for the photographs he had taken. He currently works as a communications officer for the NGO Women Now for development.
On Wednesday evening, November 30 at 7 p.m. in Liberas a vernissage place with a panel discussion which focuses on the ongoing conflict and efforts towards justice. The speakers are photographer Mohammed Abdullah (Artino), journalist Inge Vrancken (VRT), and researcher Brigitte Herremans (UGent). Middle East expert Willem Staes (11.11.11) will moderate the discussion. Want to join? Please send an email to
'Syrians in the Frame' runs from November 30, 2022, to February 3, 2023, at Liberas, and is free to attend during office hours.
