Adam Rouhana says his current photography project is inspired both by Israel's “genocide” in Gaza and the pioneering work of photographer Khalil Raad in Palestine during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Much like Raad did for the more acclaimed images from his prolific career, Mr Rouhana is taking studio photos of ordinary people in 10 Palestinian cities.
The Palestinian-American is using a large-format, Chicago-manufactured Deardorff camera, similar to the type that Raad (1854-1957) used to photograph Palestinian daily life before and after the violence that defined the years around Israel's creation in 1948.
Mr Rouhana's project will not be completed for another three to five years, but a selection of his work in two cities – 14 images from Hebron and Bethlehem – has attracted attention. It will be part of an exhibition of Raad's work at the Palestinian Museum in Birzeit, in the occupied West Bank, later this year.
The eight other cities where he plans to take his mobile studio are Jerusalem, Jenin, Nablus, Nazareth, Acre, Haifa, Yaffa, Ramallah, Jericho and Bir al-Saba’.
The son of a professor father and a writer mother, Mr Rouhana grew up spending his summers in Palestine.
He says that as he grew older, he began to see what he called the misrepresentation of Palestinians in the West, and how these representations are enabling the killing of Palestinians in Gaza today.
“This project aims, in part, to work against the representations formed through the constant stream of images of Palestinian death we are witnessing during Israel's genocide in Gaza,” Mr Rouhana told The National in Jerusalem. The city, alongside London, has been his home since 2022 and he spends half the year there.
“Another primary goal of my project is to draw a line directly through history to circumnavigate a rupture in time and make space for photography in Palestine to develop free of the colonial gaze – photography by Palestinians for Palestinians,” said the Oxford-educated photographer.
The timing of Mr Rouhana's project has added relevance as the Palestinian death toll in Gaza continues to rise – with more than 64,000 killed to date – and international outcry grows over the deaths and starvation in the tiny coastal enclave.
With dozens killed or wounded every day since the war began 23 months ago, Mr Rouhana's photos of ordinary Palestinians, much like Raad's images, form a counter-archive of Palestinian life.
These pictures establish facts on the ground: Palestinians are still very much alive and present in historic Palestine despite facing immense political, social and economic pressure and the killings in Gaza.
The pictures refute the cancellation of Palestinians by extremist members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and leaders of the settler movement, who have recently taken to using the phrase “the so-called Palestinians”.
“It has become harder and harder to photograph Palestinian life, more of a struggle in the face of the non-stop slaughter of Palestinians by the Israeli occupation forces,” said Mr Rouhana, a 34-year-old native of Boston.
He sees his photography as part of the history of the profession in Palestine, whose focus has evolved throughout Ottoman rule, the British mandate and the era of Jewish colonisation.
His work, he explains, signals a return to the tradition of studio photography and, more importantly, helps to restore the “local gaze”, which essentially means Palestinians – or Arabs, as in the case of Raad – taking photos of Palestinians for an Arab audience.
“During the colonial period, western photographers took pictures of the ‘holy land’ but totally ignored the people,” he explained. “This very well may have paved the way for the Zionist myth of Palestine as a land without a people for a people without a land.”
Mr Rouhana acknowledges Raad as his chief inspiration, although he only became familiar with his work in 2023. The exhibition later this year is a “reconstitution” of a celebrated one held in Beirut in 2013 that was devoted to Raad's work and titled Pre-1948 Palestine is not just a Memory!
Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
If you go:
The flights: Etihad, Emirates, British Airways and Virgin all fly from the UAE to London from Dh2,700 return, including taxes
The tours: The Tour for Muggles usually runs several times a day, lasts about two-and-a-half hours and costs £14 (Dh67)
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is on now at the Palace Theatre. Tickets need booking significantly in advance
Entrance to the Harry Potter exhibition at the House of MinaLima is free
The hotel: The grand, 1909-built Strand Palace Hotel is in a handy location near the Theatre District and several of the key Harry Potter filming and inspiration sites. The family rooms are spacious, with sofa beds that can accommodate children, and wooden shutters that keep out the light at night. Rooms cost from £170 (Dh808).
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
Best Foreign Language Film nominees
Capernaum (Lebanon)
Cold War (Poland)
Never Look Away (Germany)
Roma (Mexico)
Shoplifters (Japan)
Liverpool's all-time goalscorers
Ian Rush 346
Roger Hunt 285
Mohamed Salah 250
Gordon Hodgson 241
Billy Liddell 228
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
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Hive Mind
four stars
FROM%20THE%20ASHES
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
- 2018: Formal work begins
- November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
- November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
- October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
- November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
If you go
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Funchal via Lisbon, with a connecting flight with Air Portugal. Economy class returns cost from Dh3,845 return including taxes.
The trip
The WalkMe app can be downloaded from the usual sources. If you don’t fancy doing the trip yourself, then Explore offers an eight-day levada trails tour from Dh3,050, not including flights.
The hotel
There isn’t another hotel anywhere in Madeira that matches the history and luxury of the Belmond Reid's Palace in Funchal. Doubles from Dh1,400 per night including taxes.
if you go
The flights
Direct flights from the UAE to the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, are available with Air Arabia, (www.airarabia.com) Fly Dubai (www.flydubai.com) or Etihad (www.etihad.com) from Dh1,200 return including taxes. The trek described here started from Jomson, but there are many other start and end point variations depending on how you tailor your trek. To get to Jomson from Kathmandu you must first fly to the lake-side resort town of Pokhara with either Buddha Air (www.buddhaair.com) or Yeti Airlines (www.yetiairlines.com). Both charge around US$240 (Dh880) return. From Pokhara there are early morning flights to Jomson with Yeti Airlines or Simrik Airlines (www.simrikairlines.com) for around US$220 (Dh800) return.
The trek
Restricted area permits (US$500 per person) are required for trekking in the Upper Mustang area. The challenging Meso Kanto pass between Tilcho Lake and Jomson should not be attempted by those without a lot of mountain experience and a good support team. An excellent trekking company with good knowledge of Upper Mustang, the Annaurpuna Circuit and Tilcho Lake area and who can help organise a version of the trek described here is the Nepal-UK run Snow Cat Travel (www.snowcattravel.com). Prices vary widely depending on accommodation types and the level of assistance required.
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Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
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Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.
READ MORE ABOUT CORONAVIRUS
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