Major photographic first now in Bradford
Photographic stories from the Middle East by all-female photographic collective Rawiya.
The exhibition ‘Realism in Rawiya’ currently showing at the Impressions Gallery in Bradford, presents the work of Rawiya, the first all-female photographic collective to emerge from the Middle East.
With its specific focus on gender and identity, the exhibition presents a thoughtful view of a region in flux, balancing its contradictions while reflecting on social and political issues and stereotypes.
Rawiya, which translated from Arabic means ‘she who tells a story’, is made up of artists who have established their individual careers as photojournalists by working for news agencies and publications throughout the Arab world.
Living and reporting in the region, they have an insider’s view of the extremities of these settings; they also see how their reportage could become reframed in the international media’s final edit of the events there.
‘Realism in Rawiya’ is rich with untold stories.
These range from a Palestinian all-female auto racing team and transsexuals in Jerusalem, to cluster bomb survivors trying to rebuild their lives, Iranian mothers of martyrs who visit their son’s grave twice a week and parents in Lebanon who continue to wait for the 17,000 missing to come home.
International news events shown as a personal photographic insight into everyday life in the Middle East.
It is their shift in content and tone that carries the defiant force of the show.
Tanya Habjouqa’s Women Of Gaza series includes a dead-centre shot of a family picnicking from the open boot of a car parked next to the sea.
As mournful parents wait for children to return home, in her series The Missing: Lebanon Dalia Khamissy records their absence with an image of faded identity papers set against a blank grey wall.
Laura Boushnak is a Palestinian photographer born in Kuwait. As an Arab woman who was raised, educated and has worked in several Arab countries, she presents projects that highlight the position of women throughout the Arab world.
I Read I Write (2009-2012) is a response to the 2005 UN Arab Human Development Report which indicated that Arab countries collectively have one of the highest rates of female illiteracy in the world.
The photographs in this series focus on the importance of education and the major barriers that many women face in accessing education, such as: poverty, cultural constraints, minimum public spending on education and outdated teaching methods.
Beirut-born Dalia Khamissy’s work revolves around the social and socio-political stories in the Middle Eastern region, documenting mostly the aftermath of Lebanon’s wars and issues concerning women’s rights.
The Missing: Lebanon (2010 – ongoing) presents the reality of the parents who are demanding to know the fate of their loved ones who disappeared during the Lebanese civil war between 1975 and 1990: 17,000 people remain officially missing in Lebanon after being abducted or killed at the hands of different Lebanese militias and other groups involved in the conflict.
The series has a personal resonance for Dalia, who was 7 years old when her father was kidnapped in 1981.Three days later he was set free. Hindsight means she understands that her father was luckier than the others who disappeared during the civil war.
Tamara Abdul Hadi was born to Iraqi parents in the United Arab Emirates in 1980 and raised in Montreal, Canada. Her personal photography projects deal with issues of social injustice and gender stereotypes.
Picture an Arab Man (2009 – ongoing) attempts to break down stereotypes of how Arabs have been represented in the West, as well as in the East.
By highlighting the sensual beauty of the subjects, she challenges outdated notions of masculinity within the region.
Her series also attempts to break the global stereotypes imposed on the Arab male in a post 9/11 world, providing an alternative visual representation of that identity.
Myriam Abdelaziz is a French photographer with Egyptian origins. Originally from Cairo, her understanding of the culture, politics and economic struggles of the people of Egypt have allowed her to capture moments and detail within the Egyptian revolution through a local eye.
Transition (2012) documents the year following the Egyptian Revolution when the SCAF (Superior Council for the Armed Forces) took power, promising to lead Egypt into democracy and fair elections. The frustration felt by some of the Egyptian people over the lack of progress towards real democracy was made visible as graffiti on the streets of Cairo.
Egyptian Revolution (2011) presents the reality of the strong, successful, courageous and politically engaged Middle Eastern women who actively took part in the uprising. Aware that women from the Middle East are often portrayed within Western media reports as oppressed by men, Abdelaziz was keen to counteract this representation of gender.
Newsha Tavakolian, born in Tehran, Iran, is a self-taught photographer whose practice focuses on women’s experiences and identity.
Tavakolian’s shift from photojournalism to conceptual photography was partly forced by intense domestic political pressures on the media in Iran. She describes photography as: ‘a way of breathing within the smothering world of censorship.’
With Mothers of Martyrs (2006) she presents a series of photographs of mothers holding portraits of the sons they lost in the Iran-Iraq war between 1980 and 1988.
The double use of portraiture within the photographs serves to highlight the contrast between the generations, and the ever-increasing age gap between the two.
Listen (2011) is presented as a series of photographic portraits alongside a silent video piece made in collaboration with Iranian female professional singers.
In Iran, female singers can only sing collectively or as back-up singers for male vocalists, they are not allowed to perform solo, in public places or produce CDs.
Tavakolian says, ‘In my own country I participate, I tell stories that are also my story.
‘For me a women’s voice represents a power that if you silence it, imbalances the society, and makes everything deform.
‘My project Listen echoes the voices of silenced women. I have let Iranian female singers perform through my camera while the world has never heard them.’
Tanya Habjouqa’s documentary photography takes the viewer through the Middle East’s conflict zones.
She aims to capture glimmers of hope, dignity and laughter, with the intention of countering the region’s association with division and war. Habjouqa explores both male and female identity within her work.
Ladies Who Rally (2012) Speeding their way through the male-dominated Palestinian streetcar racing scene, the Speed Sisters have been heralded as the Middle East’s first all-female racing team. Habjouqa describes them as ‘independent, determined and always on the move’, and has captured the women as they have charted their own course through the pressures of social expectations, family dynamics, community politics and an ongoing military occupation.
Fragile Monsters: Arab Body Building (2009) presents an alternative view of the supersized contestants in the 17th annual Arab Body Building Championship held in Amman, revealing surprisingly tender, emotional, and insecure moments among the men.
Women of Gaza (2009) depicts women and their families walking the fine line between hope and resignation. Above all, this series tells a story of survival, and depicts the attempts of the people of Gaza to ‘normalise’ life in an abnormal situation.
Jerusalem in Heels: Transsexuals of the Holy Land (2006) portrays the drag queens of Jerusalem.
These Palestinian and Israeli transsexuals defy politics and social convention. Habjouqa describes how the individuals she observed ‘fall in love in a rambunctious display of heels and makeup, a colourful denial of the darker elements of Jerusalem society.’
And as artist Newsha Tavakolian said, the work of Rawiya offers ‘a way of breathing within the smothering world of censorship.’
Realism in Rawiya is a touring exhibition by the New Art Exchange (NAE), Nottingham, and is curated by NAE and Saleem Arif Quadry.
It can be seen at the Impressions Gallery, Bradford, until 16 May.