Young photographers celebrate love, hope in Gaza 'Alleys' exhibit
A group of young Palestinian photographers held up a mirror to life in Gaza with an exhibition in the Jabalia refugee camp.
Pictures of an old man with a wrinkled face, a dreamy young girl or children playing among the narrow streets of refugee camps decorated the narrow alleyways of Gaza’s Jabalia camp in mid-July. The message of the 70 young photographers who participated in the exhibition, called “Aziqqa” (Arabic for “Alleys”), was clear in its slogan: “The camp is the start of the story.”
The one-day exhibition, which attracted large crowds of visitors and journalists to Abu al-Aish Street, was the first of its kind in the Gaza Strip.
The photographers chose Jabalia camp, as it is the oldest, largest and most important one in Gaza. The camp was also the birthplace of the first intifada in 1987. Each photographer hung three of his pictures on the walls of the houses on the street to attract visitors’ attention.
One of the participants, freelance photographer Munjid Halas from the Shajaiya neighborhood, explained to the visitors how he selected his photos. He said that he saw in the face of the old man the simple life in Gaza, and hope in the eyes of the young girl.
