Arab Surfaces
2018-2020
Jordan
Palestine
United Arab Emirates
Qatar
Color photographs
This project was originally inspired by Stephen Shore’s American Surfaces, a book that affected me profoundly as I began to photograph. Like it, my series is primarily the collation of photographs that document places and people. My series, also like Shore's, aspires to sketch a very broad cultural portrait of a region. In contrast to his work, however, Arab Surfaces is neither a visual diary nor a compendium of random moments snapped over a long period.[1] While a handful of photographs were indeed taken on a whim, the majority were intentionally considered and composed. And unlike the American West, the Middle East is inaccessible, and grossly distorted, for many people.
I lived for three years in Jordan, taking trips to other countries as circumstances permitted. I was fortunate to work as a photojournalist for some of that time, and carried my camera everywhere I went. My experience there, for its brevity, was transformative, and I intend to return as soon as I can. It is an area of the world in which, despite the geopolitical complications — constant conflict, tribal norms, patriarchal societies and customs — unimaginable beauty, diversity and warmth prevail. These images, a colorful potpourri of portraiture along with macro and landscape shots, are one photographer’s perceptions of a remarkable region.
This is Arab Surfaces.
[1] Shore refers to American Surfaces in these two ways in an entry written for the Museum of Modern Art. https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/45/717
