A view of apartment blocks without electricity in a neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria. 2013.
The streets of Aleppo -- a city of approximately 3 million before the war -- seem desolate at night. Opposition-held areas change from mostly bustling middle class neighborhoods, to a series of empty boulevards and silent buildings. Look hard enough and the destruction of the city becomes apparent in the darkness. Climb high enough and the disparity between government and opposition-held neighborhoods become apparent: the government side is gleaming with lights from buildings and street lamps. A military hospital there, a government building there. A main square there. The opposition side has paid dearly for their revolt: death, destruction, and rarely any electricity. Only recently have the lights come back on in some neighborhoods where the locals were able to patch their own electricity together.
The aim of these photos was to convey the accessible parts of the city when night fell. Electricity had been out to most of the opposition areas wedged in an uneasy patchwork between government and rebel neighborhoods for nearly seven months by the time these photos were taken. The indiscriminate shelling from the ground and sky, the invisible snipers--the physical war-- along with the psychological war or this conflict have caused immeasurable damage and has exacted a heavy toll on one of Syria's most important, historic cities and its population. Between 13-15,000 people are estimated to have died in Aleppo (civilians and combatants combined) and countless homes and shops have been lost. Yet the city still endures, often quietly.
The corpse of a Syrian Army soldier lays by the side of the road, unclaimed, and unburied. He was dumped there by rebel fighters and remained there for all to see until locals dug a grave to give him a burial place. 2013- Aleppo, Syria.
A street is briefly lit by car headlights near the Al Sukkari neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria. 2013.
A bridge lit by car lights is seen in an opposition-held area, Aleppo, Syria, March 19, 2013.
A trail of light follows a rocket launch from a government held area of Aleppo, Syria. 2013.
A light, running off a generator, brightens a street near the frontline of Salaheddin neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria. 2013.
A jihadi fighter, sitting on a street corner, reads the Qur'an using a flashlight in Bustan Al Qasr, Aleppo, Syria. 2013.
Two people are lit by the interior car light in a residential neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria. 2013.
Opposition-held Aleppo, foreground, is seen against a brightly lit government held area in the horizon. Aleppo, Syria. 2013.
A cafe owner speaks to patrons near the frontline in Salaheddin neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria. 2013.
Rays of light shine through a shrapnel ridden metal gate enclosing a store, Aleppo, Syria. 2013.
A view of a destroyed section of the Salaheddin neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria. 2013.
A view of a destroyed section of the Salaheddin neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria, on March 26, 2013.
A man sits at the corner of two streets in a rebel held neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria, on May 18, 2013.