Everything started one year ago. The nth police abuse of power, the usual neglect of institutions, a country – Tunisia – governed for more than twenty years by the same person, President Ben Alì, who had established a corrupt and brutal regime. For Mohammed Bouazizi that was too much, the young street vendor set himself on fire in his town, Sidi Bouzidin, in front of the governor’s high gate. It was December 17, 2010: that day the Arab spring began.
One year after this tragedy, riots in Arab and North African countries have not stopped yet; on the contrary, in Tunisia, protests and riots lasted around a month, until when – on January 14 – Ben Alì left the country and took refuge in Saudi Arabia.
“At the beginning, I read fear and tension on people’s faces and in what they did”, says Sélim Harby, a young freelance photographer who, through his pictures, told us about the revolution in Tunisia. “Ben Alì’s dictatorship was already in crisis, but the control of mass media and the power of police were still very strong. But, we realised that we had come to a turning point, the only solution was that of keeping on fighting until Ben Alì left the country”.
For seven years, Sélim has lived in Berlin, where he is finishing his studies in cinema and photography. In January, he went to Tunis in order to catch with his objective the agony of Ben Alì’s regime.
“I think I left on the last possible flight to Tunis, before the airport was closed. I arrived in Tunisia a few days before Ben Alì escaped to Saudi Arabia and I stayed there around a week”.
It must have been difficult for you; you lived very intense moments and, at the same time, you wanted to document them.
“Naturally, my heart and my head supported protests, but I needed a certain detachment because I wanted to clearly describe what I was seeing and living. I tried to remain clear-headed, I wanted to seize every clue, every movement… and be cautious with police. At the beginning, it was not easy for me to take my camera and snap photos, then everything became much more intuitive and natural”.
From an internal perspective, how was the Tunisian revolution perceived? Was there a sort of superior direction?
“I can say that in Tunisia revolution was a spontaneous and independent movement with no political pressure. It was generated by exasperated and exhausted people. For 23 years, we stood a corrupt, oppressive and dictatorial regime that made us poor and we said stop, that’s enough”.
How can a revolution be described?
“First of all, I think we have had the demonstration that traditional journalism is over. The information flow surfed on the Internet and cell phones, and official press always arrived too late. As for me, I needed three things: an always-charged battery, some contacts on the territory, which kept me always updated, and the awareness that I wanted to describe all points of view. For instance, when riots exploded, I tried to depict them both from police’s point view and from protesters’ perspective”.
What did this reportage represent for you?
“It was a sort of therapy for eyes; for decades in Tunisia only one image was ever-present, that of Ben Alì. Dictatorship kills dreams, kills imagination. Now we have regained our freedom to dream, to create new images…”.
On the inside: