In Pictures: A photographer’s thirst for Iraq, quenched in a Detroit suburb
Issa Moody, 46, of Detroit, fixes his kaffiyeh outside the Rafha Islamic Center before a Ramadan dinner in 2016. (Salwan Georges/For The Washington Post)
After midnight on a recent Michigan summer night, the streets were alive with activity. Not for a Detroit Redwings game or a music festival but for a large Muslim American community there celebrating Ramadan. After dawn-to-dusk fasting, Muslims around the world celebrate the holy month. Dearborn, Mich., with one of the largest populations of Arab Americans in the United States, is especially lively during Ramadan.
Photographer Salwan Georges, an Iraqi American who came to the United States from Syria as a teenager, has been documenting the area since 2014. The photographer notes it’s not just Muslims out celebrating. Iraqi Chaldeans, Americans and others also drive from the suburbs to enjoy the late night food.
The work is part of a long-term project that will explore the Iraqi American community in Michigan. Dearborn and nearby Dearborn Heights, within the Detroit metropolitan area, have many immigrants of Lebanese, Yemeni, Iraqi, Syrian and Palestinian descent.
Georges pursues the project as he chases a nostalgia for his home country, for a culture he left as a boy. “I didn’t have a chance to experience the culture [in Iraq] growing up for long because I moved away at a young age,” he said.
Georges worked as staff photographer at the Detroit Free Press for over a year, living and working in the Motor City. He is currently a staff photographer at The Washington Post. His work often explores the intersection of his birthplace with a new way of life in the United States.
“To me the work shows people who are just happy to have the chance to celebrate their faith in the land of freedom,” Georges said. “That’s part of the beauty of the United States. Michigan has welcomed refugees for a long time and helps them to become American without giving them a culture shock. It’s an easier place to resettle and to slowly become American.”
After all, he said, “What’s more American than getting a hot dog from a stand at 2 a.m. during Ramadan?”
Men and children listen to an imam after Ramadan iftar and prayer at the Great Revelations Academy on June 28, 2016, in Dearborn, Mich. (Salwan Georges/For The Washington Post)
Hassan Tarraf, 17, left, and Hadi Mchaimech, 17, both of Dearborn, arm wrestle after midnight as they wait for a sandwich at a barbecue stand on June 15. (Salwan Georges/For The Washington Post)
Anaya Khalil, 18, of Dearborn, laughs with friends Juliet Scahine, 18, of Dearborn, left, and Rayan Hammoud, 18, of Dearborn, after ordering from a hot dog stand during Ramadan. (Salwan Georges/For The Washington Post)
Iraqi Shiite men prepare an iftar dinner at the Rafha Islamic Center on June 14. (Salwan Georges/For The Washington Post)
The iftar dinner at the Rafha Islamic Center during Ramadan on June 14, located on the border of Detroit and Dearborn, Mich. (Salwan Georges/For The Washington Post)
Jawad Tarraf, 19, of Dearborn, the owner of Jay’s barbecue stand, checks on the meat on June 15, in Dearborn, Mich. (Salwan Georges/For The Washington Post)
A group of friends smoke hookah during Ramadan at the Lava Lounge on June 14, in Dearborn Heights, Mich. (Salwan Georges/For The Washington Post)
Iraqi men sit in the back alley of the Rafha Islamic Center after a Ramadan iftar dinner on June 15, at the border of Detroit and Dearborn, Mich. (Salwan Georges/For The Washington Post)
A car parked at the Islamic Institute of America has writing in Arabic that translates to “Happy Ramadan,” on June 13, in Dearborn Heights, Mich. (Salwan Georges/For The Washington Post)