Side by Side or Face to Face: 50 years of photography by Jean Mohr

Jean Mohr (born 13 September 1925 in Geneva, Switzerland) is a Swiss documentary photographer who has been active since 1949, primarily with some of the major humanitarian organizations of the world, including the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the World Health Organization, and the International Labour Organization.

For the last 50 years photographer Jean Mohr has been documenting day-to-day life in Israel and the Palestinian territories for the ICRC. Palestine, its refugee camps, precarious sanitary conditions, and the Gaza stalemate, whilst being the subject of major media attention, is a case worthy of reconsideration. It needs to be regularly re-explained and repositioned in the context of the Israeli-Arab conflict. 

London exhibition: ‘Parallel Orientalism’

Globalization in our modern society, which is arguably increasingly more complex, has brought about a 'Clash of Civilizations' due to a lack of desire to understand and truly accept each other's humanity. 

Different cultures, traditions, dreams and aspirations results in inevitable simplistic reductions in the form of stereotypes. Alternatively, conformity to each other breeds an arrogant confidence that excludes those who do not adapt, accentuating in this way more and more the gaps and the immeasurable differences that exist in modern societies. 

This mutual misunderstanding, especially concerning the complex issue between Occident and Orient, comes the work of the photographer Fatima Abbadi and in particular her research and work of "Orientalism Parallel". Her photographic production is personal, meaningful, balanced and objective. The photographs capture moments of daily life and makes us discover that life on the streets, those children, those men, those women, those old people of the Orient are otherwise so similar with the humanity of the Occident.

And so, through the unique method of photography, the disagreements and differences that divide us, even if only momentary, are captured in universal harmony and bringing forth a new insight on our shared humanity.

http://www.arabbritishcentre.org.uk/event/exhibition-parallel-orientalism-fatima-abbadi/