In the spring of 2011 I spent three and a half months in Morocco working with writer Sarah Dohrmann on a collaborative project about prostitution and the marginalization of women.
While in Morocco I began to work with collage, cutting up the photographs I was making and piecing them back together, layering and juxtaposing the images. I was spending time with and photographing women who were pushed to the edges of society – single mothers, divorcées, prostitutes. Many of these women did not feel safe having their faces photographed - some didn’t feel safe being photographed at all - but it was important for them to talk about their experiences. I began to use the collages as a way to protect the women’s identities (when necessary) while expressing what I understood about their lives and examining my own perceptions and experiences in the process.
Having worked for several years on long-term projects addressing the complicated and layered issues around prostitution, I had become frustrated with the limitations of straightforward documentary work or reportage. I felt compelled to take a more conceptual approach to exploring ideas around representation and perception, marginalization, sexuality, the idealization and/or demonization of women’s bodies and, specifically within the context of my work in Morocco, the legacy of colonization and the impact of Orientalist representations of North African women historically and currently. My goal with this work is to not only explore some of the perceptions and realities of women’s lives in Morocco, but to raise questions about the documentary process itself and the impact of visual imagery/representation on women’s relationships with power, choice and identity.
I titled this work Scènes et Types in reference to the colonial Orientalist postcards made primarily by French photographers in the early 1900’s. These postcards (often in series called Scènes et Types) featured staged portraits of nude or semi-nude North African women in highly exoticized postures, costumes and settings. It is documented that the models for these photographs were almost always prostitutes.
My collage work is comprised of photographs I made in Morocco in the spring of 2011.
BADASS Muslimahs
I've had enough of the sensationalist, exoticised, demeaning portrayals of Muslim women seen all throughout the media, and this is my way of countering all the nonsense.
This is not an attempt at 'breaking stereotypes' or trying to enlighten people, if you're ignorant enough to believe that Muslim women are oppressed and subjugated by Islam then that's your own problem.
This is my way of giving recognition to all the women who inspire me, and hopefully sending out some positive vibes.
Peace.
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In Morocco, where men are responsible for most of their country’s artisanal production, women have maintained the age-old craft of weaving.
Until recently these rural Moroccan women have remained all but invisible behind the warp threads of their looms, single-handedly passing down the weaving tradition from mother to daughter. In this way designs, colors, and patterns are preserved like family heirlooms, within each family, each town, and each region.
Untangling Threads: Female Artisans in Morocco’s Rug Weaving Industry, offers a glimpse into rural Moroccan life as it documents the culture and craft of female weavers, specifically focusing on artisans from three rural weaving communities: Ain Leuh, Ait Hamza, and Taznakht.
(Source: dynamicafrica, via azaadi)
Meryem by the sea in Casablanca.
Ph: John Francis Peters
I interrupt. I exist.
Nadia Yassine is head of the feminist branch of the Moroccan Islamic movement - Al Adl Wa Al Ihssane.
She was put on trial for expressing support of a republic over the monarchy.
(via muslimwomeninhistory)
ubm:
NAIMA AMJDO | Training in the woods near Mohamedia, Morocco | by Rafael Marchante
Women shopping in Chefchaouen, Morocco
Taroudant, Morocco
La gente de Marruecos, África
The people of Morocco, Africa
Lalla A. Essaydi grew up in Morocco, and lived in Saudi Arabia for many years. She now lives in New York City. She received her MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts/TUFTS University in May 2003.
Essaydi’s art, which often combines Islamic calligraphy with representations of the female body, addresses the complex reality of Arab female identity from the unique perspective of personal experience. In much of her work, she returns to her Moroccan girlhood, looking back on it as an adult woman caught somewhere between past and present, and as an artist, exploring the language in which to “speak” from this uncertain space. Her paintings often appropriate Orientalist imagery from the Western painting tradition, thereby inviting viewers to reconsider the Orientalist mythology. She has worked in numerous media, including painting, video, film installation, and analog photography. “In my art, I wish to present myself through multiple lenses — as artist, as Moroccan, as Saudi, as traditionalist, as Liberal, as Muslim. In short, I invite the viewer to resist stereotypes.”
[source]
via aurora6
(Source: mono-no-aware-6, via )
