Rula Halawani was born in Occupied Jerusalem, and studied photography in Canada and the UK. As a Palestinian artist based in Occupied east Jerusalem, she has focused on documenting the difficulties of daily life under occupation, the periodic violence that transforms Palestinian neighbourhoods into war zones and the spatial implications of the occupation in terms of the built environments and structures constructed by the occupiers.
But her latest body of work is much more personal. Titled “For My Father”, it is inspired by her childhood memories of places throughout historic Palestine that her family often visited while she was growing up. Halawani recently revisited those places and documented the changed landscapes, telling the story of Israeli occupation of Palestine from the vantage point of her fading memories, and her own feelings of loss and alienation.
“During a recent visit near the Lebanese border my siblings and I had arguments about how the place used to be when we went there as children. That triggered my desire to make pictures of my memories of Palestine. It was a very emotional project, because the places our family had enjoyed visiting had changed in so many ways. Each place brought back a flood of memories, and I felt as if I am trying to photograph something that is vanishing,” Halawani says.
She travelled across historic Palestine, up to the Syrian and Jordanian borders taking pictures of rolling hills, traditional neighbourhoods, depopulated Palestinian homes overgrown with weeds, popular beaches and border areas with warning signs about landmines. She used an infra-red filter to give her images a ghostly, distant look, akin to fading memories. The few figures in the pictures are hazy; and intensified areas of ominous shadows and bright light add to the pathos of this tragic story.
Accompanying the photographs is a letter that Halawani has written to her father, telling him about the transformed environments; and sharing her grief about the fact that the Palestine he and she knew is gone, and she feels like a stranger in her own homeland now.
“This became a project for my father because every place I went to brought back memories that were deeply connected with him. He was the one who took us to these places and told us about the history of the land. He cared so much for his homeland and its natural habitat, and made sure that we understood what it means to us,” Halawani says.
One of the memories she relived was of a trip to Syria. “My father told me that like Palestine, a part of Syria is also occupied. Later when we returned to Palestine, he took us to Golan Heights, and I remember telling him that I wanted to be on the other side where I could feel more safe and free. But when I stood on that border again after so many years, it was with the sad realisation that I do not feel safe on either side, and I am still not free,” she says.
For the artist the most difficult thing was to photograph the changes in Occupied Jerusalem, a city her family has lived in for generations, and where she continues to live in the home her father built. “This is my city, and the place I love the most. It has changed so much, yet it was difficult for me to photograph the changes because they have gradually become a part of my memory. The realisation that I had begun to accept the changes as normal was painful,” she says.
The artist has a story to tell about every picture. “My father’s favourite place for swimming was the pools in a village on the suburbs of [Occupied] Jerusalem. We went there often and always found plenty of Palestinian families enjoying a swim there. When we asked him about the abandoned houses in the village, my father told us that this was one of the few villages that the Israelis depopulated but did not demolish or repopulate, and just left it to die. When I revisited the place recently the deteriorating houses still stood there, but I did not find a single Palestinian among the swimmers in the pools. Similarly, we were the only Palestinian family camping at a place that was once a popular camping site. Another depopulated village up in the hills, which was known as the most beautiful place on Earth is now a national park. My photographs of these places speak about erasure and replacement,” she says.
Jyoti Kalsi is an arts-enthusiast based in Dubai.
“For My Father” will run at Ayyam Gallery, Alserkal Avenue, until March 3.
