THE FUNDAMENTALS | Developing a Visual Narrative | Tanya Habjouqa seminar | Goethe Institut X GPP

Graciously supported and funded by Goethe Institut, GPP launched a free online educational program that aims to support the growth and development of budding artists in the MENASA region through a series of seminars and workshops led by renowned artists and cultural practitioners.

This talk took place on October 27th 2021 as part of The Fundamentals online seminars and workshops. 

Here, photographer Tanya Habjouqa walks us through how she developed a visual narrative through various photo projects, and how to reimagine creative projects that create felt experiences for audiences. In this 90-minute seminar, Tanya addresses critical theory around issues of representation, community engagement, participatory approaches, and ethical considerations of using story telling as a tool for social transformation.

About the Speaker:

Tanya Habjouqa is a Jordanian-Texan visual artist, educator, and a member of NOOR Images. Habjouqa’s approach to visual storytelling fuses a mordant sense of irony with unstinting, forensic interrogations of the implications of geopolitical conflict on human lives. Trained in anthropology and journalism (MA: Global Media, SOAS, London), her work on Palestine-Israel has been cited as a powerful investigation of the crosscurrents of politics, economics, religion, and cultural production. She is a mentor in the acclaimed Arab Photography Documentary Programme, a co-editor of the Jadaliyya's academic journal's visual-audio page and co-founder of Ruwa, a multi-disciplinary creative platform for visual storytellers across the Middle East, nurturing authentic and homegrown visual narratives. She creates bespoke workshops internationally for NIKON Europe, Doha Film Institute, Gulf Photo Plus, SF CAMERA, and ISSP Latvia (among others). Her book “Occupied Pleasures” has received critical acclaim from Time Magazine and Smithsonian. The project won a World Press Photo. She creates long-form multiplatform research projects for clients such as Amnesty International and was an adjunct professor at the Bard Al Quds media program. Habjouqa is in the permanent collections of the MFA Boston, Institut du Monde Arabe, and Carnegie Museum of Art, and is represented by East Wing Gallery. Habjouqa has served on the jury of the World Press Photo Awards, POYI (Pictures of the Year International), The FotoEvidence W Award, FORMAT International Derby, the PH Museum photography grant, and the Joop Master Class.

www.tanyahabjouqa.com