The streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland have seen decades of war and bloodshed with a history marred with tragedy. As I walked around the streets, I couldn’t help but notice this heaviness in the air regarding the various tragedies this city has experienced like the sinking of the Titanic (once a crown jewel for Belfast), the WW-2 Blitz (bombings from German forces) destroying thousands of houses in the city and more recently ‘The Troubles’ decades of civil unrest and war among British Protestants and Irish Catholics. A peace agreement was eventually signed back in 1998 and the British Army finally moved out of the city by 2005 as hundreds of locals celebrated the occasion in the streets. Now, Belfast needed to look forward and it surely did. Fast forward to 2021, the city appears just like any other modern European city and maybe even better. Surely enough, the decades of war and conflict are bound to leave some scars and only time can heal that.
Faraway/close is a photography project dedicated to the city of Belfast exploring how the differences & scars of the distant past still seem so close. The neighborhoods of Shankill Road and Falls Road might look so close on the map but the wall (called Peace Wall) represents the vast distance in the ideology of these two sections of the society. The vision for this project was to observe the art of memorizing and remembering (method of loci) in practice here as hundreds of murals and places serve as the hard-hitting reminder of what these streets have witnessed and still deeply care about. 
“The method of loci involves constructing visual images for items to be remembered and then placing them at spatially discrete locations in a familiar building or along a known path. The items are then recovered from memory by mentally retracing one's steps.”
From murals memorizing the legendary IRA (Irish Republican Army) member Bobby Sands who starved himself to death after 66 days on hunger strike to horror stories from Crumlin Road Goal prison - Belfast has the kind of story that will move you, 
Life, to be sure,
Is nothing much to lose,
But young men think it is,
And we were young!
-Text from a mural on Shankill Street, Belfast
What think ye of Christ ?
What think ye of Christ ?
Mural on Shankill Road, Belfast
Mural on Shankill Road, Belfast
Classic Belfast cab by the Peace Wall
Classic Belfast cab by the Peace Wall
Streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland
Streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland
A man fixing the sail in front of the Titanic museum
A man fixing the sail in front of the Titanic museum
Bobby Sands Mural, Falls Road Belfast
Bobby Sands Mural, Falls Road Belfast
Messages on the Peace Wall
Messages on the Peace Wall
Hotel Europa - Bombed 36 times during The Troubles
Hotel Europa - Bombed 36 times during The Troubles
Remembering the lives lost during The Troubles
Remembering the lives lost during The Troubles
Outside Crumlin Road Gaol prison
Outside Crumlin Road Gaol prison
Murals near Falls Road Belfast
Murals near Falls Road Belfast
Murals near Falls Road Belfast
Murals near Falls Road Belfast
Peace Wall
Peace Wall
Remembering Titanic
Remembering Titanic
Crumlin Road Gaol
Crumlin Road Gaol
Murals near Falls Road Belfast
Murals near Falls Road Belfast
Streets of Belfast
Streets of Belfast
The Message
The Message
Crumlin Road Gaol
Crumlin Road Gaol
Murals near Falls Road Belfast
Murals near Falls Road Belfast
Message on the Peace Wall
Message on the Peace Wall
A reminder of the lives lost in the Titanic disaster
A reminder of the lives lost in the Titanic disaster
Streets of Belfast
Streets of Belfast
Counting the cost
Counting the cost
Abandoned court house in Belfast
Abandoned court house in Belfast
Murals near Falls Road Belfast
Murals near Falls Road Belfast
New Life
New Life
Messages on Peace Wall Belfast
Messages on Peace Wall Belfast
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Child Prisoner Cell at Crumlin Road Gaol
Child Prisoner Cell at Crumlin Road Gaol
Murals near Falls Road Belfast
Murals near Falls Road Belfast
How Belfast is robbed!
How Belfast is robbed!
Mural on the Peace Wall
Mural on the Peace Wall
Bird sitting on top of the Peace Wall
Bird sitting on top of the Peace Wall
Mural dedicated to workers who built the Titanic
Mural dedicated to workers who built the Titanic
Summer of 69
Summer of 69
We Remember
We Remember
Peace Wall, Belfast
Peace Wall, Belfast
Murals near Falls Road Belfast
Murals near Falls Road Belfast
Tunnel connecting the prison to the court house
Tunnel connecting the prison to the court house
STOP
STOP
Remembering the heros of the IRA
Remembering the heros of the IRA
Mural near Falls Road Belfast
Mural near Falls Road Belfast
Mural near Falls Road Belfast
Mural near Falls Road Belfast
Mural near Falls Road Belfast
Mural near Falls Road Belfast
Mural near Falls Road Belfast
Mural near Falls Road Belfast
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