In | Humanity
The Photographs of Moises Saman
The power of photography lies in its ability to connect the viewer to human experience and emotion regardless of distance—whether of geography, class, race, circumstances, or gender. In this way, photography is truly a universal language.
The dangerous nature of photography lies in our inherent biases. Knowingly, or unknowingly, we read images through the lenses of our cultural perspectives. And yet, photographs also have the potential to catapult us out of our visual status quo, to literally, make us see (and feel) differently.
As naturally curious creatures we feel an insatiable craving to make sense of and find personal meaning in the frame of an image and its unknown actors. Whether as windows or mirrors, photographs can estrange us from what is familiar and comfortable or… offer a glimpse of the familiar in circumstances that may initially read as foreign, tumultuous and, even, terrifying. Danger lies in the objectification of suffering, and yet these photos' achievement is not simply in their depiction of human upheaval, but in their capacity to convey human resilience alongside desperation, tragedy alongside dignity—and, ultimately, our universal human connection—through this medium of beauty, light, composition, and form.
Dan Duarte
Belmont Hill Chair of Visual Arts
Moises Saman
Belmont Hill School Kageyama-Hunt Global Speaker
February 14, 2025
The Kageyama-Hunt Lecture Series, established in 2012 by Belmont Hill parents Bill and Yuko Hunt, brings speakers to campus who model global citizenship and can inspire generations of Belmont Hill boys to embrace the challenges and opportunities of an interconnected world.
Click here to learn more about his visit.
A caravan of Salvadoran migrants cross the Suchiate river border from Guatemala into Mexico after Mexican immigration authorities declined their request to legally transit through Mexican territory as they make their way north toward the US border.
GUATEMALA-MEXICO BORDER. Suchiate River
2 November, 2018
A German soldier burns a flare at a temporary campsite in the desert of Kunduz Province.
AFGHANISTAN. Kunduz Province. October 2009.
Photo by Moises Saman
Marja's new district chief Hagi ZAHIR (far left top) meets with local elders in Marja's district center.
Marja, Helmand Province. March 2010.
Photo by Moises Saman
A boy with a hunting rifle runs through the British Cemetery in central Baghdad during a sandstorm.
IRAQ. Baghdad. 2003.
Photo by Moises Saman
Looting in downtown Port-au-Prince in the immediate aftermath of the January 12, 2010 devastating earthquake in Haiti.
HAITI. Port-au-Prince. January 17, 2010.
Photo by Moises Saman
A Qaddafi supporter holds a portrait of the Libyan leader during a celebration staged for a group of visiting foreign journalists after regime forces re-took the city from rebels.
LIBYA. Zawiyah. 2011.
Photo by Moises Saman
A woman awaits to be treated at hospital operated by German Emergency Doctors in the village of Lewere, Nuba Mountains.
SUDAN. Lewere. 14 June 2024.
Photo by Moises Saman
Yusef Alnuw, 13, soon after returning from a local hospital after taking shrapnel in his stomach and eye during an aerial government bombardment that targeted a school in the rebel-held village of Al Hadra. Yusuf’s sister and ten other children were killed in this attack.
“He hasn’t been the same since he came home,” Yusuf’s father said. “He just stares into space.”
SUDAN. Al Hadra. 16 June 2024.
Photo by Moises Saman
Abil Musa, a 15 year-old Nuba cattle herder stands in front of a Sudanese Army tank destroyed by SPLM-N rebels during fighting on the outskirts of Kadugli, the capital of the Sudanese state of South Kordofan and the largest city in the Nuba Mountains.
Hamra, Sudan. 21 June, 2024.
Photo by Moises Saman
Families with missing relatives search inside the Sednaya prison for any clues about the whereabouts of their loved ones days after the fall of the Assad regime.
SYRIA. Sednaya. 11 December, 2024.
Photo by Moises Saman
Young men waiting for bread at a local bakery in Douma. Douma, a city on the outskirts of Damascus, stand as a haunting reminder of the devastating impact of Syria's protracted conflict. Once a bustling center of life in Eastern Ghouta, Douma has been left in ruins by years of relentless bombardment, siege, and fierce fighting. Shattered buildings and crumbling infrastructure stretch as far as the eye can see, bearing witness to the violence that displaced countless families and claimed innumerable lives. Amid the rubble, residents struggle to rebuild their lives, searching for normalcy in a landscape marked by destruction.
SYRIA. Douma. December 18, 2024.
Photo by Moises Saman
Congolese women living at the Buhimba camp for Internally displaced people outside Goma.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO.Goma, DRC. September 2009.
Photo by Moises Saman
An empty mass grave, its raw earth exposed to the harsh sunlight, lies abandoned on the outskirts of Damascus. Dug up by regime forces, this
unmarked site serves as a grim reminder of the war’s darkest chapters. The barren pit, now devoid of bodies, still holds the heavy weight of its purpose—a place meant to conceal lives erased by violence and repression.
SYRIA. Damascus. December 17, 2024.
Photo by Moises Saman
Women belonging to a local church planting sorghum on a communal field.
Nuba Mountains, Sudan. 19 June, 2024.
Photo by Moises Saman
Palestinian children playing on a street in the Talbieh refugee camp, south of Amman. The Talbieh camp was one of six ‘emergency’ camps set up in 1968 for 5,000 Palestine refugees and displaced persons who were displaced from the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip as a result of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Unlike the other camps in Jordan, Talbieh's inhabitants were mainly displaced persons, not refugees. Also, residents are mostly Bedouin.
JORDAN. Al Jizeh. 2 December, 2023.
Photo by Moises Saman
Merav Roth, a leading Israeli psycho-therapist, has been working with survivors of the October 7, 2023 attacks.
ISRAEL. Tel Aviv. November 11, 2023.
Photo by Moises Saman
African migrants living in eastern Libya that lost most of their possessions during the floods that devastated Derna and towns in the region, including
LIBYA. Shahat, September 20, 2023.
Photo by Moises Saman
Akram, 27, was shot in the face during fighting in Yemen, and he is receiving treatment at MSF’s Reconstructive Surgery Hospital in Amman, Jordan. The Reconstructive Surgery Programe (RSP) in Amman was established in 2006 to treat people injured in war and unrest. With a high level of surgical expertise, extensive facilities, and a holistic approach to care, the hospital provides a base for MSF to treat patients with complicated injuries - primarily from Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Palestine - who could not be treated in their own countries. The programe was initiated after victims of war in Iraq were unable to access the necessary medical attention needed, and has continued due to the ongoing conflicts in the region and the lack of appropriate healthcare facilities in war-torn countries.
JORDAN. Amman. 01 June 2022.
Photo by Moises Saman
Ten-year-old Bogdan (left), Rotislav (center), 7, and 2-year-old Vladislav, are Ukrainian children that fled the war with their respective mothers and are now living together in a home housing several Ukrainian refugee families in the Moldovan village of Rascaietti Noi, near the border with Ukraine. The home, a summer camp lodge before the war, is managed by Andrei Vozian, a Moldovan man that opened up the house to Ukrainian refugees soon after the war started. With the help from donations from abroad, Andrei is able to provide the families with food, and a free place to stay as the families figure out what their next move will be.
MOLDOVA. Rascaiettii Noi. 16 March 2022.
Photo by Moises Saman
Secular Israeli demonstrators prepare to march in support of women rights and against increased gender-based discrimination and segregation in Israeli society. Marchers walked from the started liberal city of Ramat Gan to the adjacent ultra-Orthodox town of Bnei Brak, just east of Tel Aviv.
ISRAEL. Ramat Gan. 24 August, 2023.
Photo by Moises Saman for The New York Times
About Moises Saman
A Peruvian-born photographer currently based in Jordan, Moises Saman studied communications and sociology at California State University, where he studied photography and was deeply influenced by the photojournalism covering the 1990s wars in the Balkans. After interning at several small and medium-size newspapers, Mr. Saman joined Newsday in 2000 as a staff photographer. During his seven years at Newsday, he covered city crime as well as the fallout of the 9/11 attacks, spending most of his time traveling between Afghanistan, Iraq, and other Middle Eastern countries. After Newsday, Mr. Saman turned to freelance photography, becoming a regular contributor to The New York Times, Human Rights Watch, Newsweek, and TIME Magazine, among other international publications. In 2010, he was invited to join Magnum Photos as a Nominee and became a full member in 2014. In 2015, he was a Guggenheim Fellowship in Photography recipient for his work on the Arab Spring, culminating in the publication of "Discordia," a multi-layered visual representation of the Arab Spring. Mr. Saman was a 2022-23 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and in 2023 published his second monograph, "Glad Tidings of Benevolence," a reflection on his 20 years working in Iraq. In August 2024 the New York Times published an interactive photo essay featuring Mr. Saman's photos of the Sudanese war, taken while embedded with a rebel group fighting for democracy.