Per-Olow Anderson: “A photographer who belonged to the world”

The Swedish photographer Per Olow Anderson (1921-1989) was the first in the world to tell the story about the Palestinian refugees in Gaza in a photographic book. 

In 1956 the people of Gaza had been living as refugees for eight years in the 41 km long strip. During this year they were visited twice by the Swedish photographer Per-Olow Anderson who, deeply touched by what he witnessed, started photographing. In the 50’s few were aware of the fate of the Palestinian people, even less knew about the Palestinian refugee camps that dotted the Middle East after the establishment of the State of Israel. Per-Olow Anderson didn’t just become the first photographer to cover the Palestinian refugees in Gaza, he also was the first journalist who used his camera to truly SEE the people who had lost their homes, properties and native country:

“I ask you simply to look at them. They will look back at you; and I believe that as you look into their eyes, you will, as I did, see yourself: They are human too….”

He wanted to draw the world’s attention to the situation in Gaza, and one year later he published this unique pictorial photographic book “They are human too… a photo essay on the Palestine Arab refugees”.