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| © Eman Mohammed-Darkhalil |
fototazo has asked a group of 50 curators, gallery owners, blog writers, photographers, academics and others actively engaged in photography to pick two photographers that deserve (more) recognition - the underknown, the under-respected as well as not-appreciated-enough favorites. A little more information on the project is available in the first post in the series here.
Today we continue the series with responses from Greater Middle East Photo.
The series also includes responses from Nicholas Nixon, Matt Johnston, Blake Andrews, John Edwin Mason, Aline Smithson, Colin Pantall, Michael Werner, Liza Fetissova, Laurence Salzmann, Bryan Formhals, Richard Mosse, Shane Lavalette, Amy Stein, Amani Willett, Wayne Ford, S. Billie Mandle, Leslie K. Brown, Gordon Stettinius, Marc Feustel, Hin Chua, Adriana Rios Monsalve, Daniel Augschoell, Larissa Leclair, Elinor Carucci, Pieter Wisse, Daniel Echevarría, Natalie Minik, Qiana Mestrich, Jason Landry, Rona Chang, Stella Kramer, Joanne Lukitsh, Yumi Goto, Gwen Lafage, Heidi Romano, Julie Grahame, Stefano Bianchi, Steve Bisson, Charles Guice, Ulf Fågelhammar, Tamas Dezso, Oliver Schneider, Julia Schiller, Lars Boering and John Matkowsky.
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| © Nadia Alamri |
Respondent
GreaterMiddleEastPhoto.com is an anonymous photo blog featuring new and established photographers from the under-represented region of the Middle East and neighbouring Muslim countries. With an emphasis on great photographers rather than on who's blogging and on great work in favour of the politics of the region, GMEP aims to highlight talent that may otherwise go unnoticed in the larger photo community.
Selections
Eman Mohammed-Darkhalil and Nadia Alamri
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| © Eman Mohammed-Darkhalil |
Eman Mohammed-Darkhalil is a female Palestinian working in the male dominated discipline of conflict photography. The twist to the story is that to Mohammed-Darkhalil, it is not so much about conflict as it is about life since she is working in her homeland of Gaza. Though she competes with international photojournalists for assignments from respected publications like the Washington Post, The Guardian and Le Monde, Mohammed-Darkhilil's advantage is that she knows the region, speaks the language and has much more personally invested there than the photographers who come and go as they wish.
Mohammed-Darkhilil is also a new mother. That hasn't stopped her from covering important stories in Gaza and beyond, but it has given her one more tie to the region that makes her an even more necessary voice so we hear and see the stories from a local perspective and not just the view from parachute journalists.
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| © Eman Mohammed-Darkhalil |
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| © Eman Mohammed-Darkhalil |
Nadia Alamri, like Eman Mohammed-Darkhalil, is a remarkably young, self-taught, female photographer moving beyond the norms in a male dominated industry and region.
Alamri, living and working in Oman, takes a conceptual approach to photography building narratives such as her "Spirits of Light" series. The work, which somehow manages to feel both classic and futuristic, is about a group of spirits lost - or are they trapped? - between two worlds. "They have lost their way to the light," Alamri says. I can't help but wonder if the spirits may also represent her life as a Russian-Omani struggling to fit into the conservative culture she is a part of.
Alamri had her first exhibit open in Muscat on Oct. 17th, 2011 and is exhibiting "Spirits of Light" in Muscat in April, 2012.
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| © Nadia Alamri |
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| © Nadia Alamri |
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| © Nadia Alamri |