Jo Metson Scott

The Status of Security

In 2017 I worked for a charity photographing Syrian refugees in camps in Greece. The camp was in a disused military base which held up to 800 people at a time. Most people had arrived 8 months earlier and were sleeping in tents. There was running water and basic sanitation but no heating and fires were forbidden. Winter was approaching and people were cold, tired and broken. It was not only the trauma of their past that was haunting them, it was their uncertain futures that shocked them to the core.

I often think back to the people I met there and wonder what happened to them. Although the camps are not in the headlines any more, they still exist and they are still full.

I used to think that nothing stays the same. That everything changes and evolves. But there is a permanence in the status and security that I have — and I would only fully appreciate if it was lost.


Words & Photography
Jo Metson Scott