As part of 'Palestine, IN-BETWEEN' LIFTA x CPS further explore archiving practices inside Palestine and intergenerational outlooks on preservation, conservation, and adaptation. We interview Raya Manaa, the founder of Al-Ameen Archive, an archival photo project that pulls from her father Mahmoud Manaa's past home-run Studio Al-Ameen in Majd Al-Kurum. You can read the interview now at palestineinbetween.com. Mahmoud worked as an event photographer, focusing on weddings and engagement parties in the Galilee in northern Palestine between the 1950s and 1990s. He documented more than 2,500 weddings, and many indigenous and religious ceremonies that took place in the marginalized and peripheral areas of the Galilee, an area known for its pluralism and rich religious and ethnic diversity.
With a collection of more than 10,000 negatives, Al-Ameen Archive preserves the lesser-documented or explored elements of daily Palestinian life and culture. The images illustrate and document aspects of tradition, society, family, gender, and queerness and tell stories of a changing society. 'We have a gap in Palestinian archiving practices in general,' says Raya Manaa. 'You either get the Nakba photographs or pre-Nakba photographs, as if these are of only importance to the Palestinian story. We don't have enough pictures and enough archive materials to show us what happened during the 60s, 70s, and 80s. We don't have enough representation in Palestinian storytelling in general, especially in the '48 areas.'
This interview was created in collaboration with Columbia University's Center for Palestine Studies, LIFTA Volumes, Lena Mansour and Cher Asad with support from The Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities and the Columbia Center for Archaeology.
Check out the interview and more at palestineinbetween.com, a blog and accompanying website to this program where we will be sharing original content and reposting content by Palestinians all over the world.
