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Rimi Garbua receives a flower from Yael at our exhibition opening in Jaffa, Sunday. You can see more of Rimi's work here, and text and image from the exhibition here.
If you would like to help us continue the Jaffa Photography Project, click on the 'donate' button, right.
There is an article on the Guardian website about the exhibition here by Seth Freedman.
Our exhibition, Following the home, opens Sunday (tomorrow) at New Horizon centre, 59 Kedem St, Jaffa. On show is the work of six girls from the Jaffa Photography Project - Jamilah, Sama, Jiana, Mor, Walaa and Rimi - photography developed over a series of workshops exploring 'home', 'community' and 'the other'. Please come, and bring your friends, to see this moving, exciting work - image and text from girls in Jaffa, who have not been heard before.
Here is some of the work on show:
Friday night (Sama Shakra)
'On Friday night everyone in the family comes to my house to relax and eat. In this picture you see my mum, my older brother Ibrahim and his wife Wardeh, which means ‘rose’, and their daughter Aida, named after my mother.
'On the left is my aunt Nawal and her husband Ahmed. Nawal is a healer through the Qur'an. A lot of people from Jaffa come to her and ask her to read for them. If you have stomach ache, feel anxious or suffer from the evil eye. When you hear her read from the Qur'an you feel really good. She feels what you feel. Once she read to me – and knew everything I felt. I was hot and she became red.
'I love it when Nawal comes to my home. You feel as if an angel came through the door. I have never seen a woman with so much strength apart from my mother. Nawal and Ahmed are living proof that love exists and lasts for years.'
My father (Jiana Ashkar)
'This is a happy picture. It is important to my father that the family should be happy and smile. He says, 'if you smile the world smiles back at you, if you don't smile, the world steps away'. I agree.'
Washing (Rimi Garbua)
‘This is beautiful because you can see here washing and it
reminds me of home and family. You see colours and the blue sky but next to
that you see the barbed wire that is closed and is trying to save the children
and the family from the bad environment. It’s a shield for them and it stops
people coming in, but it’s bad that we need such a shield.’
Amir by the window (Rimi Garbua)
‘In this picture we don’t see my brother’s face because of
the light, which is behind him. It’s black and white but beyond that you see
colours, and after that you see Jaffa. The child is kept safely in his warm
house but beyond him, open the door and you see all the garbage, cigarettes,
drugs and poor families.
‘Black is normally bad. Maybe this house is a place where the child is locked and must stay inside. Maybe the home is not a good place for him.’
Your way (Mor Levy)
‘This woman is a survivor because she did it her way - she made her choices. You can see in her eyes that she's a happy person - she is not wearing a mask. She told us that she could see the future. One day she woke up and a voice in her head told her not to drive. She ignored it and then had an accident. After that she decided not to ignore the voice inside - and to help other people do the same.’
Lina sleeping (Jamilah Siksik)
‘I love this picture because Lina looks like an angel
when she's asleep. I took this picture because she is beautiful and you can see
the intimacy of home and she is calm. But outside there is a whole war - many
problems, chaos. When I look at this picture I feel I can resolve all the
problems outside.’
Following the home is open for one month, from May 4
To support our work, click on the 'donate' button, right.
This image is by Jamilah Siksik, one of the Palestinian participants in the Jaffa Photography Project. She has called it Free speech.
Yael and I went to a demonstration outside the Etzel Museum, where a celebration was taking place for the 60th anniversary of the 'liberation of Jaffa', and we took Jamilah. It was the first time she ever did anything like this. We took her with the camera, and she photographed the demonstration - she's only 14 years old.
The photograph shows a man who has just been arrested by the police, because he ran to the crowd and shouted 'why should the Palestinians pay for the Holocaust?'. Police immediately dragged him away. Jamilah said this: 'I think that everyone has the right to oppose and say what he thinks especially if it's a demonstration. This man only said what he thought and the police took him.'
