I recently went to the Carnegie Museum of Art for my Fashion History class. While there, I had the opportunity to see an incredible photography exhibit: She Who Tells a Story. On display is a collection of photographs all taken by female photographers from Iran and other Middle Eastern countries. These photographers cover numerous social issues that women from this part of the world deal with to include religion, woman’s rights, and war, just to name a few. The photographic approach ranges from photojournalism to fine art, all equally powerful.
I connected with this exhibition for numerous reasons. For one, it was photography exhibit and I am a photographer. Another was that it was female photographers showcasing women’s issues, which is something I enjoy doing in my own way. Lastly, I’ve spent time working in the Middle East, specifically Iraq and Jordan and I feel a strong connection with this part of the world. I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know many woman and young girls there and learning about the different issues that that they face all around the world.
Here are a few of the photographs from the exhibit that I was drawn to and some information about each series.
Rania Matar, A Girl and Her Room, 2009-2010
Born in Lebanon in 1964, lives in Brookline, Massachusetts
“This project is about teenage girls and young women at a transitional time of their lives, alone in the privacy of their own personal space and surroundings: their bedrooms, a womb within the outside world.”
Shadi Ghadirian, Nil,Nil, 2008
Born in Iran in 1974, lives in Tehran, Iran
“I wanted to talk about the woman and the man both inside the house. And show also the war, there is a war. The man is in the war. The woman is inside the house. She is waiting for him.”
Lalla Assaydi, Bullets Revisited #3, 2012
Born in Morocco in 1956, lives in New York
“The use of the casings evokes symbolic violence and is a reference to her fear about growing restrictions on women in a new post-revolutionary era, following the events of the Arab Spring.”
Nermine Hammam, Cairo Year One: Upekkha, 2011
Born in Egypt in 1067, lives in Cairo and London
“I entered this traditionally male-dominated space, camera in hand, inverting conventional power relationships to ‘shoot’ the soldiers. Their response to my presence, as a woman, in their midst, has become part of the ‘facts’ documented in these images.”
Newsha Tavakolian, Listen, 2010
Born in Iran in 1981, lives in Tehran, Iran
“Imagining a dream. Eyes closed, mouths open, as if in a dream. Standing facing us with their backs to the darkness, they sing, soundless; they have been standing here, singing for themselves for a longtime, imagining us, hearing. Standing, facing the days of tedium, facing a world that has adorned them with a false crown. Standing, waiting.”
Boushra Almutawakel, Mother, Daughter, Doll, 2010
orn in Yemen in 1969, lines in Sana’a, Yemen and Paris
“I wanted to explore the many faces and facets of the veil based on my own personal experiences and observations: the convenience, freedom, strength, the power, liberation, limitations, danger, humor, irony, the variety, cultural, social, and religious aspects, the beauty, mystery…”
For more information about the show, which ends September 28, 2015 click this link:
http://www.cmoa.org/ExhibitionDetail.aspx?id=24483