Homeland Lost - Palestine
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PhotographyMaterial
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From 2003 to 2005 Alan Gignoux travelled to Gaza and the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel documenting Palestinian refugees and the houses and villages that were their homes before they were forced into exile in 1948.
The resulting body of work includes portraits of Palestinian refugees of all ages shown alone or with other family members and often holding up keys to lost homes, Mandate identity cards, photographs of loved ones from whom they have been separated, and photo albums from the years before the Nakba. One elderly woman wears her wedding dress, which she had carried with her into exile in Lebanon.
These images are paired with photographs of the sitters’ former homes and villages in what is today Israel.
The portraits and landscapes were exhibited across the Middle East and Europe under the title Homeland Lost between 2006 and 2011. The exhibition’s presentation of Palestinian refugees alongside their former homes was a powerful reminder of the pain and suffering cauTry it!
