Light from the Middle East: New Photography

Weiss, Marta; Porter, Venetia; Deuchar, Stephen; Best, Kate

ISBN 10: 3869305576 / ISBN 13: 9783869305578

Published by Steidl, London, 2012

Light from the Middle East: New Photography is the publication from the first major museum exhibition of contemporary photography from and about the Middle East. It features more than 90 works by some of the most exciting artists from the region, spanning North Africa to Central Asia. The exhibition was part of a collaboration between the British Museum and the V&A, which has over the last three years seen the development of a major collection of Middle Eastern photography thanks to substantial funding from the Art Fund. The work includes 30 artists from 13 different countries including internationally established practitioners such as Abbas (Iran), Youssef Nabil (Egypt) and Walid Raad (Lebanon) as well as emerging talents such as Taysir Batniji (Palestine), Shadi Ghadirian (Iran) and Abdulnasser Gharem (Saudi Arabia). The work covers a wide range of techniques and subject matter, from photojournalism to staged and digitally manipulated imagery. Like new issued without a dust wrapper. 8" - 10½". Seller Inventory # 277112

Synopsis:

Light from the Middle East explores the various ways that contemporary Middle Eastern artists deploy the language and techniques of photography. Whether embracing the capacity of photography to record or bear witness, or subverting that process in order to highlight its susceptibility to manipulation and recontextualization, they use the medium to tell stories, to question, and to challenge. This book accompanies an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum (13 November 20127 April 2013), the first major museum exhibition of contemporary Middle Eastern photography. It presents over 25 artists from across the greater Middle East (including North Africa and Central Asia), whose multiple viewpoints are appropriate to a region where collisions between personal, social, religious and political life can be emotive and complex. It includes a wide array of work made by artists living in the region and in diaspora, ranging from photojournalism to staged and digitally manipulated photographs. Marta Weiss is Curator of Photographs at the Victoria and Albert Museum. She has organised exhibitions at the V&A, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Princeton University Art Museum, and has published articles and catalogue essays on topics ranging from Victorian photocollage to contemporary Iranian photography. She holds a BA in history of art from Harvard University and earned a PhD, specialising in the history of photography, from Princeton University. Venetia Porter is curator of the collection of Islamic and modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art at the British Museum. She studied Arabic and Islamic art at Oxford University and obtained her Ph.D on the medieval history and architecture of the Yemen from the University of Durham. Her publications include Islamic Tiles (1995), Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East (2006), Arabic and Persian Seals and Amulets (2011), The Art of Hajj (2012), and (ed.) Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam (2012).

From the Back Cover: Light from the Middle East explores the various ways that contemporary Middle Eastern artists deploy the language and techniques of photography. Whether embracing the capacity of photography to record or bear witness, or subverting that process in order to highlight its susceptibility to manipulation and recontextualization, they use the medium to tell stories, to question, and to challenge. This book accompanies an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum (13 November 20127 April 2013), the first major museum exhibition of contemporary Middle Eastern photography. It presents over 25 artists from across the greater Middle East (including North Africa and Central Asia), whose multiple viewpoints are appropriate to a region where collisions between personal, social, religious and political life can be emotive and complex. It includes a wide array of work made by artists living in the region and in diaspora, ranging from photojournalism to staged and digitally manipulated photographs. Marta Weiss is Curator of Photographs at the Victoria and Albert Museum. She has organised exhibitions at the V&A, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Princeton University Art Museum, and has published articles and catalogue essays on topics ranging from Victorian photocollage to contemporary Iranian photography. She holds a BA in history of art from Harvard University and earned a PhD, specialising in the history of photography, from Princeton University. Venetia Porter is curator of the collection of Islamic and modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art at the British Museum. She studied Arabic and Islamic art at Oxford University and obtained her Ph.D on the medieval history and architecture of the Yemen from the University of Durham. Her publications include Islamic Tiles (1995), Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East (2006), Arabic and Persian Seals and Amulets (2011), The Art of Hajj (2012), and (ed.) Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam (2012).

Bibliographic Details

Title: Light from the Middle East: New Photography
Publisher: Steidl, London
Publication Date: 2012
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: As new
Book Type: book