Abdulmonam Eassa, 24 years old. My studies in Damascus were interrupted as I couldn't leave the town where I was born, Hamouria, as the government-forces' siege started on the rebel-held area. The siege started when I was 18 years old. I began work as a photographer and I published my images on social media networks. I worked on a freelance basis with some local agencies between 2013 and 2014. In 2015 I started work with Agence France-Presse, during which I published over a thousand images with the agency, documenting the siege and the lives of families and children in the area, and sometimes the lives of rebel fighters. I followed pictures that were published online and from the beginning my goal was to raise my skills as I was completely self-taught. I wasn't able to finish my high school education and I couldn't go to university, and I had to endure the brutal life during the siege and the critical moments. Especially in February-March 2018, I witnessed and documented by text, photo, and video the firestorm that raged in Eastern Ghouta during the Syrian government and Russian Air Force's military operation to wipe out rebel groups there, which left a lot of civilians killed. Often times I assisted in civilian rescue and relief during those two months, during which my own house was bombed and many of my relatives were killed, along with other residents of the neighbourhood where I was born. In the five years I endured during the siege, I was injured three times as part of my work. I left Eastern Ghouta following an agreement between the government foces and the rebel factions, giving them passage to northern Syria, after which I was able to cross into Turkey in May 2018.