Bayn Suwarna, Arabic for ‘among our photographs’, is an independent project that spotlights impactful photography from the Middle East and North Africa and publishes reviews of photobooks old and new.
I am a Palestinian-American amateur photographer and photography book collector who has learned much about my community’s lived experiences through documentary-style photography, specifically of the occupied Palestinian territories.
Photography is the most expressive medium, capturing moments in time and isolating them for study and appreciation. But it can also misrepresent subjects and cause great harm. For too long, the Middle East and North Africa have been photographed by people insensitive to or unfamiliar with the land and its people, and their depictions can be exoticizing, dehumanizing, or exploitative.
I have collected photographs and photobooks reflecting decades of work documenting the region. What I have learned above all else is that photography sensitive to and familiar with the region and its people is under-appreciated, neglected, even outright rejected. The stories we tell and our intimate depictions of home often fall into obscurity.
My primary goal with this project is to share stories from the Middle East and North Africa through what I love most: documentary-style photography. I also intend to share my collection with you so that you may expand your own and, more importantly, find how easy it is to love, revel in, mourn with, and relate to this region of the world.
Sami Kishawi