Sirkhane Darkroom Needs Your Support!

My name is Serbest Salih and I am a 26- year-old photographer from Kobane, Syria. I am currently living in the southeast of Turkey, where millions of Syrian refugees are resettled. I am the director of Sirkhane DARKROOM a photography school currently active in Mardin Istasyon, an impoverished neighborhood near the city of Mardin and in the city of Nusaybin, a beautiful city affected by war and violence.

DARKROOM is a photography school for vulnerable children of Syrian, Kurdish, Iraqi and Turkish origin under the organization Sirkhane Social Circus School. In DARKROOM, children learn how to take meaningful photos, develop analog photos and print them. They learn how to create beauty and joy out of darkness of their past and present.

Photography as a pedagogic method, enables children to first of all know themselves better. It is an incredible and effective method of teaching children coming from difficult conditions, new ways of thinking, creativity, and being playful while expanding their perspective of their surroundings.

In the course of learning this art, the classes enable them to develop life skills such as social skills, adopting universal values to themselves, and to their art, improving physical coordination and concentration. Also, the art of photography enables children to develop a healthy personality and gives them a tool, to express themselves in the most meaningful way in order to be productive members of their society.

Photography equipment, materials, and printing are expensive and we are always in need of equipment for our school, the list of which includes the following;