Tanya Habjouqa

Bio | Selected Stories | Selected Portraits | News, Education & exhibitions | Books & Prints

After grueling traffic at the Qalandia checkpoint, a young man enjoys a cigarette in his car as traffic finally clears on the last evening of Ramadan. He is bringing home a sheep for the upcoming Eid celebration.

"Unesco" Jordan public government schools with Iraqi students. Girls public government school--Amman, Smeisani.

Iraqi twins, Zain and Zainab, age six, have spent their lives in Jordan, never seeing their homeland of Baghdad. Well adjusted to their

Egyptian coptic priest father Arsanios at Dead Sea, a day before the December bombing of Coptic church in Cairo (2016).

Coptic Egyptian priest at the Dead Sea a day before the December bombing of Coptic church in Cairo (2016). Once the main Christi

After the final prayer with book , youth of assorted ages and men take a pause on mountain and relax, overlooking the view of mountain after sunrise. Here, they are standing near the enclosed area they say is where Isaac's father was tested for sacr

"Kill me instead."

Fadia, 19, traces the cracks in her rented apartment as she describes death of her father. He was killed in his bed, returning home from his work exhausted, as a laborer. Shortly before morning prayers, the security forces enter

Occupied Palestinian Territories, West Bank, Za'tara, 06 January 2013

Hayat (left) teaches yoga to the residents of her village, Zataara, on the outskirts of Bethlehem in the West Bank. The women are increasing in number each week.

A young girl plays on the beach in the party dress she wore the night before at a wedding, at the Deir al-balah Refugee camp in Gaza.

Yossef is a follower of Rabbi Nachman of Breslav, a lighter, more mystical version of Judaism that appears stringent to secular Israelis but is borderline psychedellic to the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim, where he was born and raised.

Occupied Palestinian Territories, West Bank, East Jerusalem, 17 September 2013

Khalid Zir and his five daughters take a break beside the ruins of their demolished home, in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.

Five year old urban refugee reluctantly awakes to start her day.

An urban refugee family (refugee from Syria) are struggling to survive. Their father, Maher, 43, was paralyzed after he received an injection while he was in prison. Both the mother

Bio

Based in East Jerusalem

Available for commissions& assignments

tanya@noorimages.com

Tanya Habjouqa is an award-winning documentary photographer of international standing with a track record of narrative innovation and a reputation for creating dynamic, inspired, and potently human features.

Her artistic practice explores manifestations of trauma upon the landscape, intimate spaces, and interpersonal relationships. Born in Jordan and raised between Texas and the Middle East, Habjouqa fuses a mordant sense of irony with unstinting, forensic interrogations of the implications of geopolitical conflict on human lives.

Her book Occupied Pleasures received critical acclaim from Time Magazine and Smithsonian, and the project won a World Press Photo award in 2014.

A leading advocate for innovation in photojournalism and documentary practice, Tanya is the co-founder of the Middle East visual storyteller organization Ruwa, and is a mentor in the Arab Documentary Program, providing marginalized narratives and narrative-creators with the space and skills to tell their stories. There is always an intuitive sense of metaphor beneath her work.

She is a journalist, artist, and educator, represented by NOOR Images and East Wing.

Selected Stories

Tomorrow there will be apricots

The burdens of violence are present in their scant belongings, heavy mementos to remind themselves of those they lost in the war.

Digital-era lockets: cherished cell-phone images of dead fathers, husbands, and brothers lost to Syria’s bloody uprising.

Habjouqa's photographs explore the complicated intimacies in the everyday lives of these Syrian women who cling to the hope that soon their family will be reunited and yet, in many cases, they also grapple with the knowledge they will never see them again.

And for an entire generation of young women, a pretty grim future.

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Occupied pleasures

Occupied Pleasures presents a nuanced, multi-dimensional portrayal of humanity’s ability to find pleasure in the face of trying circumstances in Occupied West Bank, Jerusalem, and Gaza.

Occupied Pleasures straddles passive and active meanings: to be occupied under Israel, and to occupy oneself, joyfully and defiantly, in pastime and simple pleasures.

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Women of gaza

2009: Gaza is a difficult place for women. The siege not only affects the economy, but the most basic of dreams and space to simply be.

“Women of Gaza” depicts a different side of Gaza.

Despite the devastation, a community spirit and elegance prevails. Women are continuing to care for their families, strive for education, and pursue careers against the odds.

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