“[Question]: How would you say your experience in Syria has influenced your work?
[Kevin Bubriski]: My experience in Syria deepened my appreciation of the vast and brilliant cultural history of the Middle East region. My 2003 visit to Syria was one of my first visits to the Middle East. The wealth of archaeological sites and antiquities was well beyond my imagination. Each day was filled with beautiful revelations and photographic discoveries. Arriving at Apamea or Palmyra and seeing the extensive colonnades of beautiful columns and architectural details was breath-taking. Years later as I looked back at the photographs it feels like viewing a mirage that could not truly exist. This inspires me to keep looking and visually exploring both at home and faraway. While in Aleppo my main concern was to make images of the merchants in the Suq and also images of the architecture and interior spaces of the Suq and the Aleppo Citadel. When I travelled to Palmyra, Apamea, St. Simeon, the Dead Cities and other sites I was most interested in photographing the sites in ways that would engage my eye and therefore the eye of the viewers of the photographs. Rather than straight forward documentation, I wanted to make images that played with the dynamic highlights and shadows and the positive and negative spaces of the architecture.”
Read the full interview here