For the last six years, the world has experienced the Syrian war through one haunting image after another: a drowned boy washed up on a Turkish beach, images of starving civilians living under siege, an injured child sitting stunned and silent in an ambulance in the aftermath of an airstrike. But as Syria entered its seventh year of war, AFP photographer Joseph Eid recently returned to Aleppo in search of an elderly man, Mohammed Anis, known for his classic car collection, and captured an image that perfectly sums up the devastation of war. “A novel in one shot,” wrote the Washington Post’s Ishaan Tharoor on Twitter.
As Eid wrote, “There are some things fighting can’t kill” - including Monsieur Anis’ will to live. Though his family has left Aleppo, he still takes pleasure in the vestiges of his former life - looking after his classic car collection, smoking his pipe, and listening to classical music on his gramophone in his shattered bedroom.