In 2007, Myriam Abdelaziz traveled to Rwanda — and spent her trip photographing and interviewing survivors of the Rwandan Genocide. The genocide, which claimed the lives of 500,000 to 1,000,000 Tutsis and thousands of moderate Hutus over the course of 100 days, left innumerable people homeless, injured, and alone.
Myriam’s remarkable book Portrait of a Genocide chronicles the strength and courage of these survivors — as well as turning an unflinching eye on the physical and psychological injuries they sustained.
“They wanted to be heard and I promised to give them a voice,” Myriam writes. And, through a simply designed book that is packed with powerful photographs, she keeps her promise.
The layout of Portrait of a Genocide is straightforward — one photograph and one quote per spread. But the simplicity of the design only contributes to the complexity of emotion experienced by the viewer … if we couldn’t find a play on words to describe it, you know this book isn’t fooling around.