Two female police officers attempt to control traffic in Cairo’s chaotic streets. Friends covet pairs of shoes displayed in a shop window in Tabriz. Three boys prepare to high dive into a cold swimming pool on a humid afternoon in Baghdad. Images like these, documenting everyday life in the region don’t always make news.
At a packed talk at Gulf Photo Plus (GPP) presenting Everyday Middle East, a project and accompanying photography exhibition with the same title, GPP founder Mohamed Somji said: "This project shows that the Middle East is not just about camels, mosques, and women in hijab. Because if you Google 'Middle East' that is just what you'd see."
The project’s founder Lindsay Mackenzie moved to Tunisia as a freelance photojournalist following the first events of the Arab Spring and began to shoot what she saw on the ground - from Tunis Fashion Week, to art gallery openings, the underground hip hop scene, and regular people shopping or drinking coffee downtown.
Though she would send pitches to international publications to cover human interest stories, the editors would frequently reject her ideas, countering with a request for Salafis, protestors, fully veiled women and other images that reinforced the mainstream Western media’s stereotypes of what it is like to live in the region. In September 2012, Newsweek published an issue with the provocative cover story, ‘Muslim Rage’, prompting Mackenzie to take matters into her own hands and offer an alternative visual narrative to document the realities of the region.
Everyday Middle East was launched on Instagram (@EverydayMiddleEast) in March 2014, as a collaboration between 25 contributors, all of whom are professional photographers based around the region, committed to using their mobile phones to shoot street shots and portraits for the project’s communal feed which transcend politics, conflict, and clichés. All contributors have access to the social media account and a different image is posted each day, much to the delight of a growing cult following.
Four of the contributors who have been working together virtually for over a year met face to face for the first time at the GPP talk. Baghdad-based photojournalist Ahmad Mousa, who shoots mainly street shots for the project from Iraq, explained: “These images are not shown to most people by the media. It feels important to show the real picture of the region by posting scenes of everyday life both from the city and countryside.”
* Selected photographs from each of the project's 25 contributors are exhibited at Gulf Photo Plus and can be viewed until February 26. For more info visit: www.gulfphotoplus.com
Danna Lorch is a guest blogger for The Art Blog. Follow her artistic adventures on dannawrites.com
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Company info
Company name: Entrupy
Co-founders: Vidyuth Srinivasan, co-founder/chief executive, Ashlesh Sharma, co-founder/chief technology officer, Lakshmi Subramanian, co-founder/chief scientist
Based: New York, New York
Sector/About: Entrupy is a hardware-enabled SaaS company whose mission is to protect businesses, borders and consumers from transactions involving counterfeit goods.
Initial investment/Investors: Entrupy secured a $2.6m Series A funding round in 2017. The round was led by Tokyo-based Digital Garage and Daiwa Securities Group's jointly established venture arm, DG Lab Fund I Investment Limited Partnership, along with Zach Coelius.
Total customers: Entrupy’s customers include hundreds of secondary resellers, marketplaces and other retail organisations around the world. They are also testing with shipping companies as well as customs agencies to stop fake items from reaching the market in the first place.
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Day 4, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Not much was expected – on Sunday or ever – of Hasan Ali as a batsman. And yet he lit up the late overs of the Pakistan innings with a happy cameo of 29 from 25 balls. The highlight was when he launched a six right on top of the netting above the Pakistan players’ viewing area. He was out next ball.
Stat of the day – 1,358 There were 1,358 days between Haris Sohail’s previous first-class match and his Test debut for Pakistan. The lack of practice in the multi-day format did not show, though, as the left-hander made an assured half-century to guide his side through a potentially damaging collapse.
The verdict As is the fashion of Test matches in this country, the draw feels like a dead-cert, before a clatter of wickets on the fourth afternoon puts either side on red alert. With Yasir Shah finding prodigious turn now, Pakistan will be confident of bowling Sri Lanka out. Whether they have enough time to do so and chase the runs required remains to be seen.
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