A Camera, a Two-Way Mirror + a Remote Control Device — the Self-Portrait Project Travels to the West Bank
In May 2015 the NYC-based Self-Portrait Project traveled to Palestine with a camera, mirror and remote-control device. With Palestine so often in the news as a place of conflict, we were curious about the quotidian details of Palestinian life beyond the violence and uncertainty. And we wanted to find out how Palestinians see themselves. While deeply sympathetic to the humanitarian toll of the occupation, we were eager to explore other dimensions to everyday life as well. In the end, we got a bit of both.
We enabled over 100 people to photograph themselves in seven cities, and in the process produced 17 shoots and 3,000 photos. We traveled to Ramallah, Jenin, Nablus, Susya, Hebron, Bethlehem and Jerusalem over the course of a week. We set up for dancers, after school girls' clubs, nightclub revelers, street life, villagers on the border of the Negev, Jesus' birthplace Bethlehem, university students, and farmers from the largest fair-trade agricultural collective in Palestine - Canaan Fair Trade. These are photos that emerged.
