Name/Title
“British Soldiers Frisking an Arab Peasant Inside Damascus Gate, Jerusalem” (1930s)Entry/Object ID
2023.076aTags
On ViewDescription
Hanna Safieh, a Palestinian born in Jerusalem, was an early photographer who captured the Palestinian experience through his work. Born during the end of the Ottoman Empire, he saw Palestine fall under British rule, Jordanian rule and Israeli occupation. Safieh provides a profoundly important photographic perspective, not only bearing witness to the events that led up to al Nakba, but also documenting his life and of other Palestinians under the British Mandate (1917 - 1948), Jordanian rule (1948 - 1967) and Israeli military occupation (from 1967 on). During the late 19th century, Safieh began working with the Swedish photographer Eric Matson of the American Colony in Jerusalem who is most well known through his archived collections now at the Library of Congress. Most of Safieh’s photographic collection dating before 1948 were stolen from his studio in Jerusalem in the aftermath of the 1967 war. Safieh is a unique and pioneering figure in the Palestinian photography world, in that he captured events such as the massacre of Deir Yassin (April 9, 1948), the funeral of Palestinian leader Abd-al-Qadir al-Husseini (1948) and other significant events from a Palestinian perspective.Provenance
Provenance Detail
Julia Pitner