True Photo Journal launched their 9th issue of its Biannual Publication mid May; which celebrates photographers bearing witness, and providing accounts of this point in human time.
Alongside, the publication is an interview, in which Halawani discusses the journey as a photojournalist and most significantly, the importance of memorialising people and place at times of displacement and devastation.
The journal is the first to publish Rula Halawani’s most recent body of work, titled For Them.
For Them, is the final instalment of a decade-long project that focuses its attention on the Palestinian landscape to focus ours on the story of its people.
When asked about the intention of contrasting landscape photographs in the For Them series, Halawani states:
‘It’s quite simple—the pink-red landscapes are heaven and the blue interiors are hell. Abu Elail’s description of his own refugee story, embedded within the ruins of Lifta, brought me to this creative place that speaks much more broadly about Palestinian identity and experience, and the occupation of Palestine, and defines the final chapters of my work over the past 10 years.
Yes, they are images that talk about the ongoing occupation of Palestine and the hellishness of the war. The blue pictures speak directly to the spaces where Palestinian spirits congregate. The pale red pictures represent the idea of Palestine—the enduring paradise that is being destroyed. They are two ways in which
I can memorialise my culture’s loss, and it’s why the series is dedicated to all Palestinian refugees, and to the past, present and future ‘them”.
