Most Arab cultures are family-oriented and built around communal living. At the same time, many Arab countries lack the freedom and opportunities that young people believe to be a birthright. For many, this creates conflicting thoughts about whether to stay or leave. “I always wondered about the reasons behind why young Arabs would want to leave their country and settle far from home,” Souhil said.

He was faced with the task of both trying to answer this question, and do so in a way that would reveal his subject.  

Souhil’s first main challenge was to find a young Arab man in Denmark who would be willing to be followed around for a week. Most of the people Souhil approached refused his request: one of the reasons for this, he suspected, may have been that young Arabs in Europe sometimes feel judged by visiting brethren, who are often critical of their way of living.  

Finally, Souhil found someone: Ziad Hajj Hassan, a Syrian who has lived in Denmark for four years. The next challenge was to reveal his life as a young Arab man in Denmark through 10 photos. Souhil tells a story of someone at peace with his Danish life; however, a distinct sense of “otherness” hovers over many of his photos.  

A 27-year-old mobile phone repairman, Ziad lives what he calls “a better life” in Denmark, with the ultimate goal of helping his father with his finances, and eventually owning a modest house back in Syria. Souhil manages to capture a sense of isolation and yearning that show disparate moments of reflection in Ziad’s life. The photographer knows when to find the moments that reveal Ziad more openly. His empathy with the subject allowed him to do this with relative ease, and Souhil is also able to capture the essence of Ziad’s immigrant neighbourhood.  

Like all the photographers in the Photojournalism Project, Souhil’s relationship with his subject was of paramount importance. Unlike the others, he had fewer barriers to break - such as language - and was able to dig deeper into his subject more consistently throughout, making his feature a very personal one.