september 16, 2008

Bethlehem team launches inside out photography project

There’s a huge wall separating Bethlehem from the rest of the West Bank and Israel. But there’s also another huge wall among Palestinians.  A wall which we can’t see.  At least that’s what faculty and students from Bethlehem University discovered when they began a project to examine the needs of Palestinian youth.  Their work, which resulted in the Inside Out photography exhibit, is currently on display at the Bethlehem Peace Center. 

Over several months, Bethlehem University Social Sciences students teamed up with German students from Cologne University for Applied Sciences in order to interview Palestinian youth about their lives. 

“One of the most striking outcomes of these interviews was young people face a lot of different limitations,” said Dr. Inge Tiemann, one of the coordinators behind the Inside Out project.  “They are severely restricted by the Wall which is cutting off the West Bank. In addition to this, there are other ‘walls’ they face in the society at large, in the field of politics, in their families.  Sometimes they even spoke about the ‘wall’ in themselves.” 

Dr. Tiemann said her colleague, Mr. Andrea Merli, came up with the idea of putting feelings and thoughts to photography after the interviews were conducted in the Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem.  The outcome is the Inside Out exhibit of more than 20 powerful photographs of both Bethlehem youth and their international allies.  The photographs are accompanied by quotes chosen by the participants that express their feelings toward the ‘walls’ in their lives. 

“It was a personal search which materialized through the contact with an invisible barrier,” said Mr. Andrea Merli, the creator of the project as well as the photographer.  “Behind the glass, everyone had the opportunity to speak for him or herself, not on behalf of anyone else.”

Mr. Merli added that every person faces limits, either visible or invisible, which they must deal with. 

“ From here comes the paradox that limits or boundaries may, somehow, establish links among people rather than pulling them apart, ” he said.  “We tried to look at limits as something which may create a common ground, or a common experience.”

The Inside Out exhibit is on display Bethlehem Peace Center from September 12-19.