Whenever there is a religious ritual or a social celebration, I try to be among the first there in order to take as much photos as possible and archive it for my town.
My name is Mati Abbas, 58, known as Mati Zakaria. I am a resident of Qaraqush, (Al-Hamdaniyah or Bakhdida) 32 km southeast of Mosul. In the last few years, I have turned into photography and never missed any event or acitivity in order to document it by my camera.
I have got diploma in technology and later joined the military college. Currently, I am the director of Syriac folk art group of Qaraqosh.
I believe my hobby of photography can document and archive life of people and events in my town which brings happiness into the life of the locals. I take about 100 photo of each event and later post it on my Facebook account.
Up today, I have thousands of photos for the various events and celebrations in Qaraqosh and Ninewa plains and people call me the archive of the town. I have participated in tens of exhibitions with my photos.
Beside ordinary people, many media outlets use my photos and my only condition it to attribute it taking my relentless and volunteer efforts into consideration.
