PROJECTS: UNSEEN AMERICA: Arab Women in Brooklyn [2008]

UNSEENAMERICA: Arab Women in Brooklyn, began as a 12 week photography workshop taught as part of UNSEENAMERICA, a nation-wide, community-based arts and social justice program. Run by Bread and Roses, a 29-year old organization dedicated to bringing cultural experiences to the disenfranchised, the program transforms ordinary people into artists with cameras, encouraging them to document and describe their worlds through photography and original texts.

Arab women now living in Brooklyn, recent immigrants from Yemen, Syria, Egypt, Morocco, and Jordan, participated in the workshop to learn to take photos of their lives. The class was held this in the spring of 2008 at the Arab American Family Support Center (AAFSC). During the course of the workshop, participants were loaned digital cameras and taught by photographer Shari Diamond, how to use them. They were given hands-on instruction and encouraged to turn their lenses on themselves and their lives. What emerges from their work is a powerful representation of their lives and communities.

Our society has been engrained with prejudice and bias for ages. Since 9/11 our ill informed biases have increased, particularly against the Muslim and Arab communities. The history of community arts in the United States has shown that the arts provide a non-threatening, community-building forum for disparate groups to work together in harmony. All art forms, including photography, can foster acceptance and appreciation of differences. This UNSEENAMERICA project has empowered the downtown Brooklyn Arab community by providing the space and tools and support they need to represent themselves using a common language of photography. The images produced are not for the sake of the image itself, but also for social transformation and education. A greater understanding of our similarities and differences will enhance both the creators and the viewer’s lives. Susan Sontag eloquently described the strength of photography as a universal language when she said, “In contrast to the written account--which, depending on its complexity of thought, reference, and vocabulary, is pitched at a larger or smaller readership-- a photograph has only one language and is destined potentially for all."

This project was sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by the Brooklyn Arts Council, Inc. (BAC), Parsons The New School For Design 2008-09 Faculty Development Fund, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts and other funders.