NOOR at photoville 2014

NOOR's recent group project in Za'atari is now shown at PHOTOVILLE –  the largest annual photographic event of New York City; it is a modular venue built from re-purposed shipping containers. For Nina Berman this is an inspiring event ''it was here that I first started thinking about the possibilities for large-scale outdoor photographic displays''. NOOR is excited to bring the Za'atari project to this location, after it was initially installed on the walls of the refugee camp in Jordan. The installation features 4 meter wide images by photographers Alixandra Fazzina, Andrea Bruce, Stanley Greene and Nina Berman.

   
''Having covered stories of refugees around the world over nearly two decades, Zaatari Camp in Jordan puts a different face on what a crisis should look like. Far from languishing in the desert to wait out the ongoing conflict, the 120,000 Syrian refugees at Zaatari have mobilised themselves. Facing up to what is a protracted situation, they are getting by day to day in what has become a new temporary city across the frontier. These threads of new lives that are weaving together the community in Zaatari compelled me to look beyond the surface, to try and tell a more sensitive and positive narrative of the people I came to meet'' - says NOOR photographer Alixandra Fazzina, whose work is now available on the NOOR website - 'Za'atiri, New Lives' http://noorimages.com/feature/zaatari-new-lives/`

Also at Photoville, on Sunday September 28, there will be a Panel Discussion with Nina Berman on Photography in Public Space. This discussion will explore the politics, meanings, and impact of site-specific artwork, examining case studies from photographers who have mounted larger-than-life photographs everywhere.

More information on the installation:
http://www.photoville.com/2014-installations/zaatari/

More information on the panel discussion:
http://www.photoville.com/2014-programming/2014-talks-workshops/whose-space-our-space/

What to do at Photoville?
http://www.featureshoot.com/2014/09/10-workshops-panels-and-events-you-shouldnt-miss-at-photoville-2014/

outdoor installation in za'atari refugee camp

NOOR photographers Nina Berman, Alixandra Fazzina, Andrea Bruce, and Stanley Greene worked on a collaborative photography project at the Za'atari refugee camp for Syrian refugees in northern Jordan. The photographers documented life in the camp and set up a photo portrait booth. They made several thousand images, nearly 100 of which were turned into large scale prints, blown up to 3 meters wide, and pasted on the camp's concrete security walls.

“We tried to strike a balance with images showing daily life without sugar coating the reality and at the same time not make the experience of looking at the wall depressing,” wrote Nina Berman on her Instagram, adding that certain questions would never be concerns when photographing for publications, but presenting photographs in public where the subjects are also the audience becomes an entirely different conversation.

To learn more about the  NOOR Foundation/Za'atari project, contact the NOOR office.