The Palestinian artist revisits the places her father took her to and presents pictures of how occupation has changed their nature.
Rula Halawani was born in Occupied Jerusalem, and studied photography in Canada and the UK. As a Palestinian artist based in Occupied east Jerusalem, she has focused on documenting the difficulties of daily life under occupation, the periodic violence that transforms Palestinian neighbourhoods into war zones and the spatial implications of the occupation in terms of the built environments and structures constructed by the occupiers.
But her latest body of work is much more personal. Titled “For My Father”, it is inspired by her childhood memories of places throughout historic Palestine that her family often visited while she was growing up. Halawani recently revisited those places and documented the changed landscapes, telling the story of Israeli occupation of Palestine from the vantage point of her fading memories, and her own feelings of loss and alienation.
