Iraqi refugee earns photography fame, Oakland University degree
Salwan Georges’ moving documentary projects and photos have appeared in a variety of publications, with his most renowned project — a series focused on the thousands of Iraqi refugees who have settled in Dearborn since the Iraq War — has been featured in the Washington Post and Business Insider.
This month, the 24-year-old honors student will cross the stage to graduate from the Honors College at Oakland University in Rochester, with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a full-time internship with the Detroit Free Press. It’s a notable feat for anyone, but for Georges, it’s especially sweet: Growing up, the Iraqi refugee missed six years of school.
Born in war-torn Baghdad during the First Gulf War, Georges says his earliest childhood memories are of looking out a window of his family’s house to bombs in the distance, thinking they were fireworks.
When his family fled to a Syrian monastery in Damascus to escape the violence when he was 8 years old, Georges was told he could not attend school due to his status as a refugee — a growing problem in Syria today as 2.2 million school age children are not allowed to go to school, according to the Middle East Institute.
Instead, Georges tended to olive trees on the mountainside, where he says he first fell in love with painting landscapes, now one of his favorite subjects to photograph
Source: www.freep.com