Thana Faroq: The Streets Are Not Empty

May 10, 2017 6:57 AM

"When war broke out in Sana'a, Yemen's capital, in September 2014, Thana Faroq was accustomed to walking freely through the city. Until then, Faroq, in her mid twenties, had been working as a street photographer. When the bombs began to drop six months later, she resolved to show the world there was still life on Sana'a's streets." Faroq discusses her work (including Everyday Yemen, In Memory of Shattered Windows, and Women Like Us) and photography as connection and conversation. She has previously spoken about the magic of street photography [TED talk, English subtitles available].
posted by mixedmetaphors (1 comment total)

Her photographs are remarkable, and her approach is admirable:

In the midst of war, Faroq reminds us, there are still moments of peace, connection, and wonder. Faroq is not painting a deceptively rosy portrait of a country at war so much as she is making life there visible and calling for its protection. Her photography is an implicit argument that not only do Yemeni lives matter, but the particulars of those lives do, too.

I love this bit:

My subjects would ask me, “Where was that street? Can you write the name?” And they would go to that street again, especially if it was a photograph of a restaurant or people having tea. I loved getting comments like, “Oh, I spotted you on that street. You were the girl who was there with the camera.” People were really connected to it, and that’s exactly what I wanted: to bring people close to each other.

Thanks for the post!
posted by languagehat at 10:33 AM on May 10, 2017 [1 favorite]