Sara, The Green Eyes of Damascus

Sara. Parco degli Acquedotti. ROMA – 24 February 2021

I know Sara El Debuch from many years and this is the fourth time that I have photographed her.

It will be over eight years now. The first time I portrayed her she was still wearing the hijab, then natural with all the steam from her red curls.

Born in Damascus, Syria, she has lived in Italy since she was a child.

When she arrived in Tuscany, she was a few months old, her family then moved to Rome. Here she graduated in Political Science just a year ago.

For some years she has successfully undertaken a career as an actress in international cinema, but she remains – for me – always the same girl as when I met her.

She misses her country very much. Every now and then her gaze becomes intense, melancholy, then she throws the curls in the air and breaks into a contagious smile.

We joke a lot together.

She, like other girls, is part of my journey as a photographer.

I have seen her phases change, years later.

My portraits are like words on the pages of a diary of the lives of many people.

For me, this is a profound pleasure and an honor.

 

For the first time with her, we went to the park of the Aqueducts.

It's not easy not to think of her land tormented by years of war by seeing her face among the profiles of the ruins of ancient Rome.

Fortunately, nature has given us the almond trees in bloom and the sweet light of the sunset.

From Wikipedia:

Damascus is the capital of Syria; it became the country's largest city in the early 2010s, following the decline in the population of Aleppo during the battle for the city. It is colloquially known in Syria as aš-Šām (الشَّام) and titled the "City of Jasmine" (مَدِينَة الْيَاسْمِين Madīnat al-Yāsmīn). Damascus is a major cultural center of the Levant and the Arab world. The city had an estimated population of 2,079,000 as of 2019.
In south-western Syria, Damascus is the center of a large metropolitan area of 2.7 million people (2004). Embedded on the eastern foothills of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range 80 kilometers (50 mi) inland from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean on a plateau 680 meters (2,230 ft) above sea level, Damascus experiences a dry climate because of the rain shadow effect. The Barada River flows through Damascus.

 

Italian version