Tahrir - Disobedience
France
2021
“Tahrir – Disobedience”
November 2019, the demonstrators try to reach Al Ahrar Bridge, one of the access routes leading to the Green Zone, the highly secured district of the Irakian capital city. Opposite, the regular authorities, supported by militia, fire live bullets and use unusually powerful tear gas. In all, over 600 people were killed and 20,000 wounded.
In this series, I have focused on the body behaviours adopted by the young men of Tahrir in the face of all this violence. You can see joy, fear, friendship, excitement and sadness. Each body seems to ward off danger in its own way. Some confront it, others ignore it. They all stand against the risks presented by the quest for a better future.
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About the artist
Born in Roubaix in 1991, the photographer and independent journalist Charles THIEFAINE lives between Paris and Iraq. He first studied architecture but soon changed direction, joining a journalism school in 2013. In 2015, he travelled to the north of Iraq where he started a photographic series on everyday life in this region subjected to violence. He moved there two years later to continue his documentary work.