#19

Mohammed Mohiedin Anis, 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 also his large collection of vintage American cars, despite everything being reduced to 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 #19 on The Atlantic’s top 25 photos of 2017.]

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/12/top-25-news-photos-of-2017/547373/?utm_source=nl-atlantic-photo-120417&silverid=NDA5MjcxMTc3Nzc4S0