I Will Return in Spring - حأرجع بالربيع
“Between migration and settlement, there are moments of continuity, represented symbolically by seeds, whether carried intentionally by hand or scattered by chance by the wind. These seeds are delicate, yet full of potential.
Between departure and return, there are seasons — soft or harsh, dictated by nature or by man.
There are trees and flowers and fruits and vegetables, and the homeland that waits.
In these transitional spaces, people move, cultivate, remember, and occasionally return – before continuing again.” - Gabriel Ferneini
Hamoudi, the eldest son of Walid and Fodda, in a flower field on the Buzuruna Juzuruna farm, Saadnayel, Bekaa, Lebanon, in March 2024. His family of Syrian farmers, originally from the Aleppo countryside, has been living in Lebanon's Bekaa valley since the start of the war in Syria and is among the founders of the farm.
View of the Mount Lebanon mountain range, in Bekaa, Lebanon, in March 2023. Lebanon holds some of the most significant water resources in the region, yet its rivers and springs are often polluted or exploited. This natural wealth is also a source of geopolitical tension, especially with Israel, whose expansionist strategy has long targeted Lebanon’s water sources.
This project takes place between Lebanon and Syria, against the backdrop of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and ongoing regional tensions. It focuses on agricultural communities living in border regions, where political boundaries intersect with everyday life, redrawing territories across fields, homes, and histories.
The work examines three specific areas in Lebanon and Syria: the Beqaa Valley, South Lebanon, and Southern Syria. Through these places, the photographer seeks to explore farming communities responding to the uncertainty of both seasonal cycles and shifting borders, navigating political instability alongside environmental challenges.
These communities exist in a space marked by disruption and continuity, displacement and rootedness. The project documents their practices, their stories, their seasonal rhythms, to better understand what helps them hold on — what is passed down, repeated, sustained through their ties to the land and to one another — how knowledge is transferred, and how resilience and resistance are formed through connection to the land and each other.
“For me, this project is a way of anchoring myself by documenting this moment of profound transformation, in search of meaning, or a way forward, both individual and collective. It is also a way of practicing a counter-geography — one that does not stem from centers of power, but emerges from the land itself, from agricultural practices, from bonds woven through the seasons, through crossings and returns. It proposes an emotional cartography, drawn from the ground up, sometimes as a new way of seeing, sometimes as a return to older shared geographies, now fragmented by modern borders.” - Gabriel Ferneini
I Will Return in Spring - حأرجع بالربيع’s artistic approach is documentary, based on long-term immersion. This work combines portraits, landscapes, photographs of objects, animals, and seeds, along with audio and video recordings of stories and daily gestures — moments observed, shared, and remembered.
Sham, the daughter of Walid and Fodda, poses in a field of towering sunflowers on the Buzuruna Juzuruna farm, where she lives with her family. Her name means Damascus in Arabic. Saadnayel, Bekaa, Lebanon, August 2024.
A makeshift plywood coffin holding the body of someone who was killed by an Israeli airstrike awaits exhumation in Tyre, Lebanon, in December 2024. During the escalation of the Israeli war on Lebanon, the intensity of airstrikes in the South prevented residents from burying the deceased in their home villages. In line with Islamic burial customs, bodies were temporarily interred in improvised graves on vacant lands. Four months after the declared ceasefire, families in the south of Lebanon continue the process of reburying their relatives.
An abandoned tank rests along the highway connecting the inland city of Homs to the coastal region of Tartous, following the fall of the Assad regime. In the distance, Qornet el Saouda — Lebanon’s highest peak and the tallest in the region — is visible from across the Syrian border. Homs to Tartous highway, Syria, January 2025.
Between school and homework, the boys living on the farm in Lebanon's Bekaa valley steal a moment to climb a mulberry tree, in Saadnayel, Bekaa, Lebanon, in October 2024.
Two Israeli fighter jets cut across the Lebanese sky at sunset — a routine breach of Lebanese airspace that serves as a show of aerial supremacy, keeping the threat of bombing ever-present. This followed weeks of intense Israeli strikes during the recent escalation. Bekaa, Lebanon, November 2024.
Walid and Fodda (center), surrounded by their children, Areej (right), Yassine (center), and Hamoudi (left), on their farm in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley in November 2024. Originally from the countryside of Aleppo, the family fled Syria at the start of the war and has since rebuilt their life through farming and seed saving. When the photographer called Walid to congratulate him on the fall of the Assad regime and to ask him if he was planning on returning to Syria, he said that he would return in spring.
A selection of seeds from Buzuruna Juzuruna’s library. From left to right: Iraqi Blackbeard heirloom wheat — once banned after the U.S. invasion of Iraq; lentil; Palestinian heirloom cowpea Ayoun Saouda — banned by the Israeli occupation; corn; beetroot; daisy; sulfur cosmos (flower); calendula (flower).
Buzuruna Juzuruna (meaning “Our Seeds Are Our Roots”) is a Lebanese-based seed-saving initiative led by displaced Syrian and local Lebanese farmers. The project preserves and distributes heirloom varieties from across the Middle East, protecting biodiversity and food sovereignty in a context of war, displacement, and climate instability.
Saadnayel, Bekaa, Lebanon, April 2024.
Mount Hermon appears on the road to Quneitra, Syria, in March 2025. The mountain overlooks Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine and is visible from the three countries as the most iconic and visible landmark. Since the fall of the Assad regime, Israel has expanded its occupation of the mountain to maintain a military advantage over the region from above.
World Press Photo has partnered with the Samir Kassir Foundation to offer a free masterclass program for photojournalists based in Lebanon.
The masterclass’s objective is to develop and guide photographers with 4-8 years of experience in their practice, placing special emphasis on building skills for long and sustainable careers in photojournalism, documentary photography, and beyond. Moreover, this course is designed to help photographers based in Lebanon reach the international community, providing guidance on diverse topics such as safety, research, photo ethics, writing, legal requirements, pitching, career development, and avenues for publishing.
See more work by Samir Kassir Foundation Masterclass participants here
