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 CENTER, 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 RECEIVED 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 DURING THE IRAQI MISSILE ATTACK. TO THE LEFT, HANGS A DRAWING OF A NUDE MALE MODEL THAT MY MOM CREATED ABOUT A DECADE EARLIER, AND ON THE RIGHT, MY DAD HAD INSTALLED A CHARGING STATION FOR HIS CAR VACUUM CLEANER
SO CALLED ‘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.