Announcing the 2021 Arab Documentary Photography Program grantees
Ahmed Qabel, Cairo (Back and Forth), Egypt.
Alongside The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) and the Prince Claus Fund (PCF), we are pleased to announce eleven new projects to be supported as part of the eighth cycle of the Arab Documentary Photography Program (ADPP).
The Arab Documentary Photography Program offers production support for long-term creative projects within a six-month individual mentorship program with Randa Shaath, Eric Gottesman, Tanya Habjouqa, and Peter van Agtmael. Over the course of the program, the photographers come together for two intensive workshops to aid in the development of their projects. This year’s photographers are:
Ahmed Qabel, Cairo (Back and Forth) | Egypt
Ameen Abo Kaseem, My Short-Term Memory | Syria
Aya Albarghathy, Banished from Our City | Libya
Doaa Nasr, Suspended Until Further Notice | Egypt
Ghayyan Al Amine, Two Cities | Lebanon
Ieva Saudargaite Douaihi, The Last Garden | Lebanon
Lina Khlaid, Baby Pigeon | Jordan
Mohamed Hozeyn, If I Move from Here I Would Die | Egypt
Mohammad Kotb, Misery of Soft Hands | Egypt
Nisreen Nader, Free Air | Yemen
Samar Abu Elouf, A Quote from Hell | Palestine
Aya Albarghathy, Banished from Our City, Libya.
This year’s cohort was selected from 82 applications representing 14 Arab countries. Meeting virtually over two days, the jury committee was comprised of Magnum Foundation’s Executive Director Kristen Lubben; Lebanese photographer Dalia Khamissy; and Iraqi photographer and journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad. They issued the following statement:
We were impressed by the wide range of topics covered in the 75 applications we reviewed. We saw projects that spoke directly about global issues that are playing out in the region, and classical topics for documentary photography: migration, urbanization, and conflict. But we also saw many others that explored issues in surprising new ways, often indirectly: feminism, harassment, patriarchal societies, economies, youth questioning the future, oppression, water, art, health, queer issues, history, archives. Particularly in the context of the pandemic, many documentary photographers turned to intimate issues within the home or even within the self.
We also saw stories from exile, which is such an important part of the narrative of the region. There was good gender diversity among the applicants, as well as an interesting mix of photographers who were self-taught and those who had received formal photographic education.
The eleven projects we selected are reflective of the pool of applicants as a whole. While each of us weighted projects differently according to the review criteria, we arrived at shared conclusions based on extensive dialogue about each and every application received.
We were drawn to projects that focused an important story through a new or surprising lens, such as talking about displacement and urbanization through the lens of the photographer’s grandmother.
In other cases, very strong work was not selected if the jury decided that it already seemed complete and was not in need of the extensive mentorship that is the strength of the Arab Documentary Photography Program. We were pleased to see more applicants from Palestine this year, and in future years we’d like to see more from the Gulf, Iraq, and Yemen, which were underrepresented in this year’s applications.
The program was created to support and amplify creative approaches to visual storytelling that challenge conventional narratives about the region. The eleven selected projects reflect a range of personal, social, political, and environmental issues, such as a search for the last patches of green in Beirut; civil war and its impact on daily life and mental health in Yemen; and intimate self-portraits of a photographer’s battle with cancer in Jordan.
Lina Khlaid, Baby Pigeon, Jordan.
As the new grantees begin their projects, participants of the 2020 cycle are finalizing their visual stories. Learn more about the program and the projects by previous grantees here.