The century book about children at war
Founded shortly after the First World War, Save the Children has been working for children in need for 100 years. What has become of the countless war children whom the organization has helped throughout its history? Answers to this question are provided by the sophisticated photo book “I Am Alive“.
It was a photograph that triggered the founding of Save the Children in 1919. The photograph of a starving infant from Vienna shocked the British woman Eglantyne Jebb so much that she began to collect donations on a grand scale for the suffering “children of the enemy“. A century later, Save the Children is setting up a memorial to the revolutionary child rights activist - with an extraordinary book. What does it mean to experience the horror of war as a child? How does life go on afterwards? And how does help in adversity shape the further biography of survivors? These are the questions that Save the Children, now the world's largest independent children's rights organization, explores with photographer Dominic Nahr in “I Am Alive”.
I AM ALIVE - HOW CHILDREN SURVIVED A CENTURY OF WARS
Editor and overall concept:
Martina Dase for Save the Children Deutschland e.V.
Photography: Dominic Nahr
Text by: Bertram Job, based on interviews and reporting by Anna Mayumi Kerber
Design: mischen, Harri Kuhn, Berlin
Project Management: Ineke Sass
Kerber Verlag
ISBN 978-3-7356-0635-8
324 pages
Languages: German/English
www.kerberverlag.com/de/1905/i-am-alive-2.-edition
The photo book “I Am Alive. How Children Survived A Century of Wars.“ brings biographies of war children from 100 years to life in an almost cinematic way. From a First World War survivor to a newborn Rohingya girl from Bangladesh, the book brings together eleven haunting portrayals. They show the devastation that wars mean for children, but also give hope. The help these children received in their time of need has left its mark on them for the rest of their lives - and has turned many of them into helpers themselves.
A Look inside
The book of the century was initiated, conceived and edited by Martina Dase of Save the Children, the photographic storytelling was done by Swiss photographer Dominic Nahr. The special feature: Guest authors from all over the world immersed into one photograph from each of the stories - without knowing the whole story. Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Vice-President of the European Commission Margrethe Vestager, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, former German Development Minister Dr. Gerd Müller, Nobel Prize winner for Literature Professor Wole Soyinka, author Amir Hassan Cheheltan and war reporter Jon Swain were among those who took up the pen. The foreword was written by Save the Children's patron, Her Royal Highness Princess Anne.
The book of the century has been published in German and English by Kerber Verlag and presented at the International Literature Festival Berlin 2020. Following consistently positive media coverage (verlinken zu Presse-Unterseite), the book “I Am Alive“ 2021 received four awards: Bronze at the “Prix de la Photographie“, Bronze at the “Budapest International Foto Awards“, Shortlist “Die Schönsten Deutschen Bücher“ as well as Longlist “Deutscher Fotobuchpreis“.
