The Dream by Fabio Bucciarelli

Bucciarelli, an award winning conflict photographer, has dedicated himself to documenting the stream of humanity fleeing conflict, following the uprisings of the Arab Spring in 2011. The Dream captures the suffering and hope of this wave of refugees.

Fabio Bucciarelli has followed the story of refugees fleeing the revolutions and wars that followed the 'Arab Spring' since they began in 2011.

When the first refugees - immigrant workers from Bangladesh and sub-saharan countries - were fleeing from violence in the Benghazi region of Libya, Bucciarelli recognized the tremendous suffering and intractable situation facing them. There were hundreds of men and women struggling to flee the conflict: a river of souls who came to Libya to work and found themselves in limbo, in a foreign country torn by war with no way of returning home.

Since these first encounters with refugees, Bucciarelli has dedicated himself to documenting this stream of humanity fleeing conflict. His work has taken him from Sicily to Syria, Libya, Turkey, Iraq, Tunisia, Egypt, Serbia, Macedonia and to the small Greek island of Lesbos where refugees arrived from Turkey by the boatload every day.

Bucciarelli calls his book “The Dream” because, without a dream to sustain them, the people who make up this stream of humanity could never make the torturous journey in search of refuge. They are sustained gy a dream to be free of war, to find safety, to recover their dignity and to build meaningful lives again.

The Dream contains 186 black and white images, some done with a pin-hole camera. It includes texts from Buciarelli and Peter Bouckaert, former Emergencies Director for Human Rights Watch.

Bucciarelli has received the Robert Capa Gold Medal for his work from Syria and many other awards including Picture of Year in 2015 in a special category “Exodus” addressing the refugee crisis.