"We Belong Here"

In 1991, the family landed at a refugee camp in Saudi Arabia. There, Al-Badry got his first camera, a Pentax K1000.

- Photographs by Wesaam Al-Badry

“I didn’t understand the numbers on top, shutter speed, and aperture, but I understood, over time, composition,” Al-Badry told me.

Even without regular access to film or any reliable way to develop what he shot, he saw in his hands a tool for telling his story as it unfolded.

Eventually, Al-Badry’s family was re located to Lincoln, Nebraska. “When you come in as a refugee, you think everything is beautiful. You think you made it to the promised land; everybody’s equal,” he said. “But then you realize there’s little hints.”