Heat Fellows Experiment with Site-Specific Installations in second Amman Workshop
Jenna Masoud
That’s a wrap on our 2023-2024 Heat fellowship! Last month, our fellows returned to Amman, Jordan for their second workshop, where they worked with mentors to experiment on site-specific installations of their projects about heat and climate crisis.
This workshop marks the culmination of over eight months of project development by the fellows, and is part of our Photography Expanded program focused on expanding the parameters of documentary photography and exploring creative models for narrative change. While much of artistic practice is measured by output, for this program, our metric for success is in how much participants were able to reflect, slow down, reconsider the bases of the form and function of their work. As increasingly urgent global crises demand new paradigms of working, this fellowship is focused on creating space to develop expanded approaches that reimagine what a critical and ecological photographic practice might look like.
The nine Heat fellows are Farhana Satu, Gayatri Ganju, Hashem Shakeri, José Luis Arroyo-Robles, Luján Agusti, Mahmoud Khattab, María Valqui, Miora Rajaonary, and River Claure – learn more about them here.
Building on their January workshop exploring the relationship between photography and ecology and engaging with climate-related projects from the region, fellows spent the June workshop working on their experimental installations with mentors Eric Gottesman, Nandita Raman, and Newsha Tavakolian, and Magnum Foundation president Susan Meiselas. The resulting installation was presented at the MMAG Foundation to invited guests from the Jordanian artistic community.
For this year’s fellowship, workshops were produced in partnership with Darkroom Amman and hosted at MMAG Foundation, working closely with Jordan-based photographers and former Magnum Foundation fellows Lina Khalid and Nadia Bseiso.
Congratulations to the fellows, and stay tuned for more about their projects over the coming months!
(Above) Fellows work with mentors on their experimental installations. Photos by Jenna Masoud.
(Above) Opening of the installation showcase at the MMAG Foundation. Photos by Jenna Masoud.
(Above) Group photo of the fellows in Wadi Rum. Photo by Jenna Masoud.
The Photography Expanded Fellowship is made possible thanks to the generosity of the Rosenthal Family Foundation, the William Talbott Hillman Foundation, and the Geneviève McMillan-Reba Stewart Foundation.