Syrian Conflict Transforms Woman From English Teacher into War Photographer

NPR has published a fascinating piece about 25-year-old young Syrian woman named Noor Kelze who has been working the front lines of the Syrian conflict as a conflict photographer for Reuters.

When the Syrian uprising started nearly two years ago, Noor was a recent college graduate teaching English in a private school. […] she offered to record one rebel unit’s battles and upload the footage to the Internet. She says it was her way to help the cause.

“The camera is as equal as a weapon,” she says. “And you need to document every single thing that’s happening. Because back in the ’80s, when we were in similar situation, nobody had any idea about what was going on in Homs and Hama,” she says, referring to a brutal crackdown by then-President Hafez Assad. […] Tens of thousands of people were killed then.

Last fall, a well-known war photographer with the Reuters agency, Goran Tomasovic, spotted Noor shooting pictures with her cell phone. He trained her for a week on how to use a professional camera, then gave her a few of his cameras to keep. She’s been sending pictures to the agency ever since.

Here’s the audio version of the story that was broadcast on NPR’s All Things Considered:

You can read the story and view a selection of Kelze’s powerful images over on NPR.

Conflict Transforms Syrian English Teacher Into War Photographer [NPR]

Image credits: Photographs by Noor Kelze/NPR