In Photos: A love letter to Gaza

Mahmoud Nasser frames the piece as a personal love letter to Gaza, saying the two years he spent there before the morning of October 7 are his final record of when it was whole.

“When I walk back through memory, I’m confronted with a longing for a sight I fear I’ll never see again”

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He writes from a place of longing and memory.

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He presents those years as both unbearably difficult on paper and unbearably beautiful in lived experience.

Nasser foregrounds sensory and communal details.

He evokes Gaza's shores and the salty, biting air.

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He describes waves that each carry their own sound.

He notes the paradox of feeling like the freest person in the world's largest prison.

He shows streets full of people.

He mentions a taxi that could take you to Beit Hanoun, "the mother of magic."

Laughter cuts through the cold.

He paints an old man on a plastic chair warmed by the noon sun.

He uses these images to show everyday life and intimacy amid hardship.

Writing from Toronto, Canada, Nasser contrasts his current surroundings—streets filled with strangers—with memories of Gaza's public warmth.

“When I walk back through memory, I’m confronted with a longing for a sight I fear I’ll never see again”

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He says those memories are all he has left: 'two million lives ago, two million memories,' of which his is one.

He closes by expressing gratitude for the memories and hope to return one day as a free man.

Mahmoud Nasser is identified as a Palestinian documentary photographer currently based in Toronto, Canada.