AM :
The ground is covered in rocks and sand, and the clear water of the Dead Sea glistens in the background of this photo. The sky is a pale blue-grey that transitions into a soft orange glow as the sun sets. In the centre of the image is an abandoned wooden structure. A ladder on the right side of the structure gives access to a platform, and tattered fabric hangs from and encloses it—like it might have provided a hiding spot, or protection from the elements. The strips of fabric blow gently in the wind and the soft glow of the setting sun shines through the structure’s openings.
AD :
A barren land, with greyish and brownish stones, pebbles and soil cuts the photo horizontally against a blue and pinkish sky with the sun setting. A body of water in the distance merges its blue hues with those of the cloudless sky. A bizarre structure stands upright in the middle: a metal chair with some steps wrapped around with torn, fraying fabrics dancing gently with the wind.
NB :
This image was taken at sunset, close to the dead sea. From a distance it looked like a figure—like a person, or a dress, or a scarecrow. The Dead Sea is a natural frontier between Jordan and Israel.
AM :
A stream cuts through sand-coloured rock formations. The riverbed is shallow and rocky, and trees are lining the flowing water. A single figure is walking along a trail to the left of the water, heading towards the camera. In the distance, a fire is burning behind the tree line. Smoke rises above the stream and floats towards the light blue sky.
AD :
A landscape with mountains, the barren and textured surfaces of which make them look like giant scones. A few shrubby trees – the only greens in the photo – lean on a river that is not deep enough to be able to hide its rocky riverbed. A gray smoke dissipates all over, revealing its source, that is, the tiny orange flames of a fire.
NB :
This photo was taken very early in the morning, This area contains hot springs—the water is really, really hot. When you put your feet in, it feels like boiling hot water. There’s a sense of shock when you touch the water. People can’t feel it, but at the time walking in to the water, the air was very cold, but the water was really, really hot. There was a fire, and seeing the fire and water at the same time was intriguing. I was waiting for the right time to take the photo and a person appeared walking in that one spot.
AM :
A family soaks in a pool of shallow water. The water is surrounded by nature—tree branches, the green leaves of small plants, reeds growing through and out of the water along the shore. But there is also dry earth and dead plant life visible amongst the growing greenery. It’s an interesting contrast of green and yellow-brown; of cycles between life, death, and regrowth. The family is fully clothed and submerged in the water. They look away from the camera—almost as if they do not realize it’s there to begin with. A girl lays face up in the water with her arms spread wide. Her face looks towards the sky and her eyes are closed. She looks serene and relaxed as the water ripples around the perimeter of her face.
AD :
A few children swimming in a fresh water source with their clothes on. One lying on his back on the water’s surface, the others have their heads down. Green and brown reeds encircle the water, giving it a shade.
NB :
It was close to sunset, and there was this family in the water while I was walking. My feet were in the very hot water while taking this picture. I was walking around, trying to balance myself and enjoy the water. There was a cool current moving around my feet, so it felt really good and comforting. I approached this little pond with this girl in it. The cool current was contrasting with the very hot water, and the girl must have been so relaxed there. It would have been impossible to sit like that in the very hot water.
AM :
An industrial-looking area. Power lines, a small brick building, and cement walls make up the background of this image. Four trees stand in front of a short wall. Their roots are protected by borders of rocks and their branches are supported by stakes and lines tied to the ground. The trees are struggling to live amidst the draught, but nearby buckets seem to indicate that someone has been watering them, caring for them, and helping them grow. A woman in bright orange and yellow clothing stands among the trees. Her arms are raised and her hands are clasped above her head. She looks to the left of the image, standing strong among the struggling trees.
AD :
So many beautiful pale pastel colors (blue, beige, mustard, pink, orange, yellow…) of
so many different shapes (many rectangles, some ovals and circles, vertical and slanted lines) of so many different things (constructions, walls, plants, ropes, buckets, stones, antennas, cell towers, cables, a hose, and a woman).
NB :
In the Jordan valley, the landscape here more barren and not as fertile. This woman was walking around and there was a moment when she suddenly stopped and stood there Composition-wise, the photo built itself up, the woman stood like a tree.
AM :
A group of men are standing and sitting in a natural pool of water. Rough, jagged, sand-coloured rocks surround the water and trees grow alongside the pool and up into the hilly landscape. A cement wall has been built along part of the rockface. The wall is covered with faded blue, pink, and white graffiti.
AD :
(Too) Many men in a pond. It feels hot and men of varying ages are taking a dip in the pond surrounded by a rocky area, small hills, and shrubs. In the middle is a run-down concrete block with some illegible writing on it. A kid has his clothes on. Some men have their white tang tops on. Others are in shorts.
NB :
This location is not an easy one—when walking around, it’s too hot on your feet, too hot to walk around, if you try to balance yourself on rock, you might scrape your hands, sharp as a knife. The colouring of the rocks and their formation and texture.
AM :
Two women stand together with their arms linked. They are facing away from the camera. The woman on the left wears a long, grey head covering, a long-sleeved pink top, and a dark-coloured floral dress over blue jeans. The women on the right wears an orange-printed head covering, a red and black striped long-sleeved top, and a long dark-coloured plaid skirt. The land they stand on is bare and dry. The ground appears to be sandy and there are thistles growing in the distance. Power lines stretch over the women’s heads and across the sky.
AD :
A sandy, arid land with nothing on it other than a few shrubs. A few metal cables cuts through the clear blue sky. Then dusty land and dryness create a yellow hue on the horizon. Two women with colorful clothes stand in the middle, with their backs turned to the camera, and holding onto each other.
NB :
This location is in the North, close to a Potash factory (a mineral extracted from the Dead Sea). If you look at the ground—you walk on it and the sound of your feet make a sound on the salt or mineral. It’s not muddy, not sand, it’s like walking on some sort of salt. I don’t know how to describe the sound, exactly [Nadia picks up a piece of hard plastic to make a rattling sound]. The two girls are shepherds but you don’t see the herd in this photo as they are to the left of the shot. I was fascinated by the colours of their outfits. Also, usually men are shepherds. They are in a location where I’m not sure what the herd would be eating as there is nothing there, just some bushes. And I wonder how they are eating this really rough type of thistle. How does the herd at the end of the day find food? Yet they do somehow.
AM :
Two women, one young and one much older, sit in shallow water in front of a concrete wall. The young woman holds the older woman’s hair in her hands as if she is braiding it. The older woman touches the water with her right hand, letting it flow through her fingertips. She looks directly into the camera; a gaze which is cast by strong and knowing eyes.
AD :
A decaying concrete wall with some faded writing on it. Its bottom edge, covered with moss, joins a body of shaded water that feels so fresh. An elderly woman is sitting in the water in her clothes wet, and with her legs extended. She is looking directly at the camera with dead serious eyes. Another (younger) woman, also sitting in the water, is braiding the elderly woman’s long hair. A leopard-print bag hands on the wall.
NB :
I was invited to this moment by chance. While walking around by myself a man—not in the picture—called me over and told me to come closer. I found this old woman having a moment with, I think, her daughter. I didn’t say anything, I just gestured with my hand to ask if I could take a photo and the women didn’t seem to mind. To me, this woman looks to be mother nature. Older generations are more entwined with mother nature and with taking care of the land. The younger generation is not doing the same to take care of the environment. We are going about or lives and not doing what we have to do towards mother nature…each other—this woman seemed to know all of this, there was so much going on in her face…She is wise and she knows that this is going on, There’s also a nonchalant attitude in her face as well. There were multiple things I felt in her presence. also a feeling, like she is trying to warn us of what is about to come.
AM :
A body of grey-green water sits in a valley between rocky and rolling mountains. Grass and trees grow along the hillsides, there is lush greenery surrounding the water, and a building sits on a cliff overlooking the valley on the left side of the image. In the background, a chain link fence stretches across the land and splits the mountain into two parts.
AD :
A topographical view of mountains and a valley. Mountains are barren, textured with yellowish, orange-ish and brownish colors. A road with fences cuts across them. The only green in the photo are some shrubs surrounding a body of murky water in the valley.
NB :
Chapter two I’m looking for fertility, this was taken in North near the Jordan/ Israeli border overlooking the occupied Golan Heights. I was standing at a resort on the border near the Yermouk River. The mountain is dissected, or cut in half, by the barbwire fence of the border.
AM :
A small man-made pool is encircled by a chain link fence. A large group of young boys play and swim in the water—it’s almost uncanny how many children are sharing the pool together. They do not have much space to move around but they all seem to be having fun and enjoying themselves. The pool area is surrounded by a stone-tiled patio and there is an open-air structure in the background of the image. The building has a canopy built onto its front and side. Green and red patio chairs sit under the canopy, and a group of boys sit together at the building’s corner. In the right side of the image are two lush palm trees which stand in contrast to the brown hillside that stretches across the landscape behind the pool area.
AD :
A swimming pool covered with a fence and full of kids (all boys). Behind the pool is a brick structure with some shaded terrace with colored plastic chairs and some toys. Behind that are arid mountains. No single cloud on the sky. The weather looks incredibly dry (no surprise the pool is full!).
NB :
I was really baffled at how many kids were in this pool—it looked like they were in a cage somehow. Why this cage, the wiring? Again, you are close to the border, the mountains in the background are the Golan Heights. It’s this feeling that we are caged somewhere in these borders, we are confined in space.
AM :
A concrete tunnel is built into a hillside. Grass and plants grow on the surrounding hills and a rocky stream sits at the image’s forefront. There is water running through the manmade tunnel, and it spills over a concrete ledge and into the stream below. A man wearing jeans and a blue long-sleeved shirt stands on the rocks below the tunnel’s entrance. He leans over and drinks from the falling water.
AD :
A derelict concrete structure that seems to be a tunnel. Nature has taken over it, with shrubs, moss and green growing on it. Fresh water flows through the tunnel falling over the rocks beneath it. A young man is leaning over that small waterfall to take a sip. His blue clothes contrast with the green of the nature that took over the pale concrete.
NB :
freshwater spring.
AM :
Two children stand before the branches of a growing tree. The earth below their feet is dry and sandy. There are wood chips and splinters in some areas, and a few pieces of abandoned garbage scattered upon the ground. In the background, a line of trees stretches across the image and a small pile of branches are being burnt. The fire has no visible flame, but smolders enough to send a light cloud of smoke up into the air. The children stand in contrast to their surroundings: they wear brightly coloured clothes, masquerade-style party masks, and hold noisemakers to their mouths.
AD :
Two young girls with colorful clothes standing in front of an olive tree. I can feel the Mediterranean landscape: arid soil, dry weather, olive trees. Garbage scattered all over the ground became one with the earth. Girls seem to be celebrating something, with colorful masks and kazoos. Their celebratory spirit contrasts with the smoke dissipating from the branches burning behind.
NB :
I reference sister cities in Chapter 2. In the North of Jordan and the South of Syria you have two sister cities—I created this theme. You have Rhamtha in Jordan and there is Dar’a in Syria, they are somehow sister cities. In my mind, they are closer to each other than the countries’ capitals are to their smaller cities. It’s a separation of sister cities by a border. Before this border existed, hundreds of years ago, there was this common understanding between villages. People used to travel in a lighter manner, and had freedom of movement. Now it is more difficult to travel because borders. 100s of years before the borders were created, people could move freely and there was an understanding of why you would move across the border and back again. Later on these borders became a line in the sand, restricting movement.
I call them sister cities because of an experience I had while photographing this part of the land during a wedding. In one city (Darha) there were bombs falling, and in the other I was shooting a video of a wedding. It’s a shocking contrast, like sisters being torn apart.
AM :
A man wearing a short-sleeved plaid shirt stands in the centre of the image. Behind him, a field of tall, dry grass burns to the ground. He gazes past the camera—not making eye contact with the lens—but looking beyond it and into the distance. He is an older man, his face lined by years of work and life and experience. His face is full of emotion—is it sadness? Hope? Fatigue? His eyes are full of untold stories.
AD :
A man looking with an expression of extreme grief in his face. He is standing in front of a burnt field with some fire still, and smoke coming out of it. The landscape is dry with shrub trees in the back and cloudless sky. The man is elderly, but I cannot tell his age. He is so thin. Perhaps even not well nourished. His clothes are worn out, and he looks so tired.
NB :
This image is about man’s relation with land, and the feelings that started for me during Covid. I was blaming man explicitly for all the things happening to mother earth. Ancient civilizations respected nature, and then man came along and started to not give a damn. We used to know that nature had to be taken care of, that we had to have nature’s blessing. Man came along and war and extraction started to happen. This farmer was burning a piece of the land. How painful it must be to burn your land like this, something so important to you. Even though it will help it grow again, and this is something that farmers must do to have a better harvest, there is something so painful about having to burn it and make it suffer. It’s like nature is giving you everything but we are burning it in return. I have a lot of water in my work, and then suddenly I started to see fire.
AM :
A figure stands in the centre of this image, surrounded by lines of trees and standing upon the grass and mud-covered ground. Their face is shrouded in smoke from the pile of branches they are intentionally burning.
AD :
Smoke coming from a stack of olive tree branches. The ones on the top are dry, and the ones below are still fresh. The smoke hides the face of a kid standing behind the fire.
NB :
This was during the olive harvest. Olive farming in the Middle East is a family ritual type of thing. A lot of families have these trees in farms and gardens, or in their houses. November – January is olive picking season. The process of picking, making olives, and then the process of cutting the trees and making them suitable for the next season. I was driving up North and I noticed this fire. The man was burning the branches up. Some farmers take these branches and do something with them but lots of farmers burn their branches which is not good for environment. He is a farmer, who is taking care of his land more than anyone else, but at the same time he is burning it. Like this double-edged sword.
AM :
A rocky, dirt-covered area. There appears to be grass-covered hills in the background, but the smoke from a burning fire has covered much of the landscape. The wall of smoke billows upwards and becomes entangled with the white cloud-covered sky. The lines between smoke and cloud, fire and air, earth and sky have all been blurred.
AD :
A landscape is horizontally sliced into two. Above is white smoke merging with blueish, greyish sky. Below is barren brown soil with some shrubs, stones, and rock.
NB :
This is an interesting picture for me. It was taken while coastal driving, close to mount Nebo It’s a very mountainous area. I suddenly saw lots of approaching fog, and this very small house in the distance, covered in all this fog. It was a very interesting moment for me to see the combination of lightness and heaviness at the same time—clouds are fluffy and white like cotton, but also you can’t see anything. The fog covers everything. There’s a contrast between something delicate and nice but also blinding and scary at the same time.
AM :
Eight wire bird cages with colourful plastic bottoms hang along a cement wall. Five blue, one green, one yellow, and one red. They hang outside among the powerlines and transmission towers of an industrial area. Each cage contains one small bird—canaries, perhaps. In the distance, a flock of wild birds circles the light-blue sky. It’s an unusual juxtaposition of wild and contained, free and caged.
AD :
A series of birds in cages hanged onto a wall outside. The pale beige concrete wall is crumbling down, with so many brownish cracks on it. Behind the wall is a transmission tower, and in the distance are a series of concrete columns with iron rods coming out of them. Barely visible are some birds flying in the clear blue sky.
NB :
This was taken a year or two ago. It was taken in the North. I saw a fire somewhere and stopped. I stumbled upon this house and saw a toddler running around the in garden, I approached the house and then looked to my right and saw these canary-type birds. I love birds. Lots of people in the Middle East, in Jordan, they like having these types of birds. They collect them as a hobby, sell or trade them. It’s unusual that they were outside—caged and outside—birds are supposed be flying outside. And you can see some birds flying in the distance, maybe some pigeons flying. It’s a contrast and a metaphor for not being able to be free. With the situation in the Middle East, with everything that’s going on, people feel like they are trapped or caged. It’s kind of strange to see these birds outside when they are supposed to be free flying. These birds may not actually be able to survive in the wilderness, similar to goldfish. I am not sure that these birds can really be outside, that they could survive in the wilderness. Just kind of absurd, strange to find them outside but caged.
