Photographer Yusuke Suzuki: Discovering the meaning of war

Photographer Yusuke Suzuki travelled over the Turkish border into Aleppo, in Syria. This picture in his series "City of Chaos" shows a once-lively shopping street. "When I arrived in Aleppo, I realized that there wasn't any water, gas, electricity, nor medicine, schools, jobs or baby milk here, he said.

"As blankets were handed out, people were screaming to get one. No one had enough gas to heat and the winter was super cold," recalls Yusuke Suzuki, who took this picture in Aleppo in January.

The Japanese photographer traveled to Syria with the help of a contact in the Free Syrian Army. They immediately became friends; thanks to him, Suzuki was warmly received among Syrian families. The photographer lived with the people in modest houses that were often already overcrowded with members of the extended family who had lost their own homes.

The photographer accompanied the fighters of the Free Syrian Army to the front. "We often drank tea and they were joking around. Sometimes they'd even keep telling jokes when the first shots were fired at the front," Suzuki recalls. However, the mood would quickly change as shelling intensified. The photographer could feel he wasn't the only one to fear for his life.

On the island of Lesbos, the Japanese photographer documented the refugee crisis. "Some 20 to 25 fully packed boats arrived every day," recalls Suzuki.

Yusuke Suzuki says he experienced "heartbreaking moments" on Lesbos. He didn't find it easy to shoot photos of the people's pain and despair. "But someone has to tell these stories," believes the photographer.

In 2006, at the age of 21, Yusuke Suzuki traveled to Afghanistan for the first time and took his first professional photos there. The trip changed him: until then, Suzuki had planned on becoming a guitarist but decided to focus on photography instead.

What did the young Japanese photographer know about war and peace? This is the question Yusuke Suzuki kept asking himself while travelling through Afghanistan. He discovered that everyday life was not only despair and destruction. He also captured its beauty.

"I wanted to understand the meaning of war. I wanted to see, hear and feel how people manage to live with war," says Suzuki about his Afghanistan series. For his authentic reporting, Yusuke Suzuki has won the Berlin Photo Biennial Award for Young Emerging Talents.