I constructed this photo essay around one specific Pashtun family from the Swat valley in Pakistan. In the wake of the recent government offensive against militants, the family fled south to seek refuge and safety. These photos show the life within a few hundred yards, from activities around the camp to the few tents where the family and its neighbors eat, play and survive as well as they can.
The feeling of photographing these refugees, or any kind of refugees around the world, is one of frustration in the sense that things never really change in these parts of the globe. This frustration is driven by a sense of realism which strikes me as the most appropriate approach towards human suffering: an overall condition that is here to stay in the human experience. These feelings are deeply attached to my view of the photojournalist profession, which teaches you many things about life in general, but above all the notion that, as a whole, things remain the same.
Jonathan Alpeyrie
Jonathan will have a new website to launch in September
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