Photo

Mohammed Mohiedin Anis, or Abu Omar, 70, smokes his pipe as he sits in his destroyed bedroom, listening to music on his hand-cranked gramophone in Aleppo's formerly rebel-held al-Shaar neighborhood in Syria. Anis had recently returned to Aleppo, with plans to rebuild not only his home, but his large collection of vintage American cars, despite everything being reduced to wreckage and rubble. 

When reporters asked him about the gramophone, he responded “I will play it for you, but first, I have to light my pipe. Because I never listen to music without it.” 

Photo: Joseph Eid / AFP / Getty

Read photographer Joseph Eid's full account of his time spent 

with Anis here. #