Tanya Habjouqa
Tanya Habjouqa (born 1975) is a Jordanian American photographer based in East Jerusalem. Her work documents daily life across the Middle East.
Early life and education
Tanya Habjouqa was born in Amman, Jordan, in 1975.[1][2][3] Her mother was American, and her father was from the minority Circassian ethnic group in Jordan.[3][4] When she was 4 years old, her parents divorced, and her mother brought Habjouqa and her brother to live in Fort Worth, Texas, where she grew up.[2][5]
Habjouqa studied journalism and then anthropology at the University of North Texas.[3][6] Early in her career, while still a student, she worked to photograph the lives of migrants in Texas.[1] She later earned a master's degree in global media and Middle East politics from SOAS University of London.[3]
Career
In 2002, Habjouqa moved back to the Middle East.[1][5] She now is based in East Jerusalem, where she has raised her two children with her husband, a Palestinian lawyer who holds Israeli citizenship.[1][2][4][7]
With her photography, Habjouqa works to document the daily struggles of those living under oppression across the Middle East.[1][3]
She is a founding member of the all-female Rawiya photography collective and has joined the nonprofit NOOR photo agency.[1][2][3] Her journalistic photography has been published in such outlets as the Washington Post and NPR.[7][8] She has also taught photography at Al-Quds Bard College in East Jerusalem.[3]
Habjouqa gained recognition for her 2009 "Women of Gaza" series.[1][2] In 2015, she published the photography book Occupied Pleasures, based on her 2014 World Press Photo Award-winning project of the same name.[3][9] It was named by Smithsonian as one of the year's best photo books.[3][10]
In 2016, her work was featured in the National Museum of Women in the Arts exhibition "She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World."[1] In 2024, several of her pieces were included in the Middle East Institute's show "Louder Than Hearts."[7][11] Her work is held in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Institut du Monde Arabe, and the Carnegie Museum of Art, among other institutions.[3][6]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Haight, Emily (2016-05-26). "She Who Tells a Story: Tanya Habjouqa". National Museum of Women in the Arts. Retrieved 2025-03-03.
- ^ a b c d e Estrin, James (2014-01-07). "Palestinian Pleasures". The New York Times. Retrieved 2025-03-03.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Tanya Habjouqa". Aria Art Gallery. Retrieved 2025-03-03.
- ^ a b Wilson, Keith (June 2021). "The N-Photo Interview: Tanya Habjouqa" (PDF). N-Photo. Retrieved 2025-03-03.
- ^ a b McKeever, Amy (2023-07-18). "How has Texas changed in 20 years? She went home to find out". National Geographic. Retrieved 2025-03-03.
- ^ a b Nettles, Adrienne (2014-12-11). "Telling stories to effect change". North Texan. Retrieved 2025-03-03.
- ^ a b c Larson, Vanessa H. (2024-05-29). "A stirring photography show captures the Middle East through a female lens". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2025-03-03.
- ^ "Left behind, in an assaulted Israeli town". NPR. 2023-10-13. Retrieved 2025-03-03.
- ^ Collins, Courtney; Holter, Rick; Martinez, Krystina (2014-08-15). "Tanya Habjouqa On Looking At The World Through A Different Lens". KERA News. Retrieved 2025-03-03.
- ^ Magazine, Smithsonian; Roberts, Molly. "The Best Photography Books of the Year". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2025-03-03.
- ^ Binswanger, Julia (2024-05-31). "This Woman-Led Photography Exhibition Showcases the Diversity of Middle Eastern Femininity". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2025-03-03.