The aka TAWLA collective, founded by Abdo Shanan and Rehab Eldalil, is dedicated to creating photobooks and promoting photographic works from the SWANA region (Southwest Asia and North Africa). In November 2023, they launched Tarweedeh, a fanzine inspired by traditional Palestinian songs, at the Polycopies fair in Paris. This project, supported by the Magnum Foundation and the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, includes works by photographers such as Randa Shaath and Tanya Habjouqa, exploring themes of collective memory and identity narratives.
Tarweedeh features works by:
Maen Hammad : A Palestinian documentary photographer based between Ramallah and Washington, D.C. He focuses on the skateboarding scene in the West Bank, which he has been documenting since 2014. His project Landing explores skateboarding as a form of resistance and escape for Palestinian youth in the face of the tensions caused by the Israeli occupation. Hammad closely collaborates with SkatePal, an organization supporting skateboarding in Palestine by building skateparks and providing equipment. Through this initiative, Hammad captures the vitality of Palestinian youth and the use of skateboarding as a form of creative resistance.
Randa Shaath : A Cairo-based photographer of Palestinian and Egyptian origin. She explores the urban transformations of the city and the daily life of Cairenes, often through a black-and-white approach. Her series Under the Same Sky focuses on life on Cairo's rooftops, capturing intimate moments in often overlooked urban spaces. She has exhibited in venues such as the Tapies Foundation in Spain and the Witte de With in the Netherlands, and she represented Egypt at the São Paulo Biennale in 2006. In parallel, she teaches photography at the American University in Cairo.
Samar abu Elouf : An award-winning Palestinian photojournalist based in the Gaza Strip. Since 2010, she has been covering the conflicts and harsh living conditions of Gaza’s residents for publications like The New York Times and Reuters. She focuses on issues related to women, children, and the aftermath of recurring wars, such as the Great March of Return protests in 2018-2019. Her commitment to documenting local realities has led her to work without protective gear, sometimes fashioning a makeshift helmet from pots and pans. In 2021, she covered the May clashes between Israel and Hamas, documenting the massive destruction and human losses, including those of her own family members.
Nidal Rohmi: A Palestinian documentary photographer based in Gaza, whose work focuses on the impacts of conflicts and the marginalization of Gaza's inhabitants. Since 2016, he has left his engineering career to devote himself to photography, exploring themes such as limb amputations resulting from successive wars. His project Gaza the City of Amputees, supported by the Arab Documentary Photography Program (ADPP), sheds light on the daily challenges and ambitions of conflict victims.
Tanya Habjouqa: A Jordanian-Palestinian photographer known for her series that explore the political and social tensions in the Middle East with a nuanced visual and narrative approach. Her award-winning work blends documentary and conceptual art to capture life scenes in the Palestinian territories, focusing on humor and resilience. Habjouqa is part of the NOOR Images collective and has exhibited in institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Samar Hazboun: A native of Bethlehem, she uses photography to address issues of gender and violence in Palestinian society. She has worked on series such as Beyond Checkpoints, exploring the impacts of military checkpoints on pregnant women in the West Bank. Her works, supported by the Magnum Foundation and other institutions, aim to give a voice to marginalized women while raising awareness of their daily realities.
Ameen Abo Kaseem: A Palestinian-Syrian visual artist and documentary photographer based in Damascus. A graduate of the Institute of Dramatic Arts in 2023, he has been using photography since 2016 to document the effects of conflicts on his environment and to express personal experiences related to his life in the Yarmouk refugee camp. His project How Was Everything, Before All This Ruin?, supported by the Magnum Foundation and the Prince Claus Fund, explores memory and the remnants of a lost past through intimate and poetic narratives.
Lina Khalid: An emerging Palestinian photographer whose work explores womanhood and intergenerational stories within Palestinian communities. Her visual approach focuses on the collective experience and intimate storytelling of women in Palestine, seeking to give visibility to stories often marginalized in dominant narratives.
Nadia Bseiso: A Jordanian photographer of Palestinian origin, specializing in visual documentaries related to environmental and social issues. Her project Infertile Crescent, supported by the Arab Documentary Photography Program, studies ecological transformations and water access conflicts in the Fertile Crescent region. Bseiso, who has exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Istanbul Biennale, uses photography as a means of raising awareness and advocacy on environmental issues in the Middle East.