Slidefest: Shift Your Focus Edition

One of GPP’s most beloved events, Slidefest brings together six photographers to present a myriad of photography projects. Both inspiring and interactive, Slidefest invites the audience to engage with the work by asking questions and offering feedback.

Following are the projects that will be presented by the artists:

 

Arab HipHop

Laith Majali

Laith Majali, a Jordanian photographer now based in LA has been documenting Arab Hip Hop artists and the impact on the cultural scene in the Arab world and beyond. The project has taken him around the world: from Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut to backstage with the Wu-Tang Clan in Amsterdam.

 

Patrick Baz

Christians of Lebanon

Lebanon has been undergoing tumultuous change given the socio-political changes in and around the country. As the Christians of Lebanon find that they are no longer the dominant force, Patrick Baz went around the country for 2 years to examine the rituals and rites of the Christian denominations and seek answers to questions about the future of the Christian community.

 

Mariam Al Arab

Juffair

Juffair is an area within the capital Manama, Bahrain. Also known as the Las Vegas of Bahrain because of its tall buildings and active nightlife. Juffair, as opposed to today and before the sea reclamation, was a calm village by the sea. Land reclamation began in the seventies, but reclamation was not just about the sea, most of the people from Juffair area were not able to afford or access the reclaimed land that was being created, which created complex social and economic dynamics between the old and the new settlers in Juffair.

 

Mariam and her husband Hussain, took portraits of the fragmented inhabitants of Juffair, photographing them against a black backdrop, portraits were accompanied by oral histories as a methodology to comprehend the urban transformation in the area.

 

Natalie Naccache

Kteer Jeune (Very Young)

How Lebanese females look after their appearances began being documented through different generations in December 2009.  Almost every street in Beirut is populated with beauty salons, which are not seen as pampering sessions, but a way of life in Lebanon, even for the busiest of mothers and the poorest of people in society.

 

There are four women to every man. Females are brought up from a young age influenced by their mothers, having beauty parties, teenagers and women having regular beauty appointments.  As Lebanese women grow older, these social expectations in Lebanon do not change.

 

Ali Al Shehaabi

Middle east to the World

This is a series of nostalgia that brings up the memories in forms of visuals from my past. Growing up between Bahrain and UAE, to me the middle east is not just my muse, it is also my roots and my future which i am portraying in my analog photos. It consists of scenes of adults, brothers, sisters in the neighborhoods i grew up in, living their life and daily errands & more.

 

Tanya Habjouqa

Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots

This popular proverb in the Levant roughly translates to, “In your dreams”, and reflects the hopeless situation of these Syrian refugees living in Jordon. The burdens of violence are present in their scant belongings; heavy mementos that remind them of what they have lost in the war. Like many other displaced people around the world, mobile phones have become precious talisman to them, filled with messages of love, lullabies, and hope shared between their husbands and boyfriends, other family members and friends. Brief moments of levity are a rare occurrence in a life that has come to be defined by a vicious cycle of poverty, isolation, and suffering

 

Habjouqa's photos explore the complicated intimacies of everyday life for these Syrian women who have been left behind. They cling to the hope that soon their family will be reunited again, yet at the same time, they grapple with the knowledge that most likely they will never see them again.