Building Photographs
2014–present
A collection and archive of images and objects, binding together biographical material witnesses and recordings with publicly available images of day-to-day life in Palestine and the Middle East. They tell the story of Israeli and Palestinian societies from the 80s to date, bringing to light both the homogenization of dreams across enemy lines under consumer capitalism and reveal the specter of war, oppression, and occupation that are never far from these contrasting mundane images, presented one after the other.
*All captions were translated from Hebrew
A NEW HOUSE WITH THREE SUPPORTING COLUMNS AND A TYMPANUM AT THE FRONT: I TOOK THIS PHOTO IN UMM AL-FAHM. LATER, IT BECAME A WEDDING GIFT.
THE CARAVAN PARKED AT A MILITARY OUTPOST WAS DIVIDED INTO THREE ROOMS: A CLINIC IN THE CENTRE, A BEDROOM FOR SIX SOLDIER-MEDICS ON THE SIDE [WITH TWO DRAWINGS I COPIED FROM URI REISMANN HANGING ON THE WALL], AND THE DOCTOR’S ROOM ON THE OTHER SIDE, WHERE HE BOTH RECIEVED SOLDIER-PATIENTS AND SLEPT. AS FAR AS I RECALL, PALESTINIAN DETAINEES WERE EXAMINED OUTSIDE.
A GROUND-WORKER PROSTRATING UNDER THE SHADOW OF A SHOVEL IN WEST JERUSALEM
A FEW DETAILS STAND OUT IN A PICTURE OF ME SITTING IN MY PARENTS’ SEALED ROOM. TO THE LEFT, THERE’S A DRAWING OF A NUDE MALE MODEL THAT MY MOM CREATED ABOUT A DECADE AGO. ON THE RIGHT, YOU CAN SEE THE CHARGING STATION FOR MY DAD’S CAR VACUUM CLEANER.
‘BUTTERFLY WALL,’ DECORATED WITH ‘JERUSALEM STONE,’ ON THE ISRAELI SIDE
WHEN I WAS SENT TO DOCUMENT THE REMAINS OF HOUSES IN LIFTA VILLAGE IN JERUSALEM, THE FIRST PHOTO I TOOK WAS OF THE OUTSIDE.