Description

Gaza – There is something fascinating about a destroyed city. The rubble architecture has a terribly beautiful aesthetic all of its own. Of course, you can’t tell that to a Palestinian. When you talk to them about the war, everyone gets serious. But in everyday life, there’s a lot of laughter. And the people are insanely hospitable. Even if you knock on a complete stranger’s door and say you want to take a picture of their destroyed house, they immediately ask, “Coffee or would you rather have tea?” Civilization was still there, so that was a good lesson for me. What makes a city a city has nothing to do with how many houses are actually there, but how vibrant the society is. It keeps the urban structures alive. The rubble is just a transition, an intermediate stage to rebuilding. A city does not automatically have to be broken when it is destroyed.