Interview:
Website:
Gallery:
Biography:
Dalia Khamissy was born in Beirut. She graduated with a degree in Photography from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Saint-Esprit de Kaslik, Lebanon. Since the beginning she has shown interest in the social and socio-political issues in the Middle East. Her first story in 1998 shows a single mother living in the Lebanese society. In 2002, she traveled to Iraq as a photographer for a humanitarian mission. She returned to the region in 2004 and lived on the border of Jordan-Iraq where she documented the Palestinian and Iranian Kurd refugees stranded in two camps after fleeing the war in Iraq. She has also photographed refugees in Lebanon, mostly Sudanese and Iraqis. In June 2005, Dalia took a job as photo editor for Associated Press in Beirut. After editing the summer 2006 war and its aftermath, she left AP and started working on her own photography focusing on the aftermath of the war and the Lebanese society. Dalia’s work has been exhibited and published internationally.
(Murray, Jörg, and G. Höhr. "Al-liquindoi: Lebanon Gallery - Dalia Khamissy." Al-liquindoi Photography Workshops. Web. 18 Oct. 2010.)
Quotes:
"I studied Photography at a Fine Arts faculty, so the aesthetic was very important in our work. We spent our years studying the work of masters of photography and those surely became “masters” because their photographs were aesthetically different than others… We studied also history of art, drawing etc. So one’s eye gets used to seeing in a different way I guess. "
(Colberg, Jörg M. "Conscientious Extended | A Conversation with Dalia Khamissy." Jörg M Colberg. 18 May 2010. Web. 18 Oct. 2010.)
"In this series I was struck by the peaceful and sad spaces I found when I entered the houses and mosques; the furniture left behind witnessed of the stories of people who once lived there… I felt I knew those people; I knew their taste in furniture, colours, fabric, clothes that covered the ground etc. You imagine stories of how they lived, how they used to gather at night all together, how they laughed, argued etc… How they hid from the bombs and how they fled the war, if they ever managed to flee the war… Their spaces and lives were completely violated and I related to that, I wanted to document that. The war had turned their private spaces into public in few seconds and it was very disturbing. In a way I put myself in their shoes and I was furious."
(Colberg, Jörg M. "Conscientious Extended | A Conversation with Dalia Khamissy." Jörg M Colberg. 18 May 2010. Web. 18 Oct. 2010.)
Here recently the photographers that I have chosen to show on my blog are becoming redundant. Most of the photographers that I have been looking at recently have photographed homes of destruction, whether it be from a natural disaster or war. I find it interesting though that Khamissy has decided to concentrate more on the furniture. She said that by doing so she felt that she somehow knows the people who lived there by looking at their belongings. I also have felt somewhat like this when I am photographing abandoned houses. I don't necessarily feel like I know that people that once lived there but questions are raised about them personally. I like what Khamissy said about how "one's eye gets used to seeing in a different way". This quote has really reaffirmed that my photographs are different from others who have photographed similar places.
No comments:
Post a Comment