Iris Hassid | A Place of Our Own
This exhibition ended on 29 January 2023
A Place of Our Own is an exhibition featuring four young women living and studying in Tel Aviv, who are both Palestinian and Israeli citizens. Israeli photographer Iris Hassid (b. 1968) began documenting her subjects in 2014, photographing them and discussing their ambitions, friendships, families and political-social engagement.
Living close to Tel Aviv university, Hassid had noticed that the number of Arabic-speaking women among the students was growing fast. Yet the image they projected didn’t match the image of Arab women she saw in the media in Israel. So she set out to portray these students and their lives. In 2014, she met Samar, a recent graduate of the television and film academy. Through her, Hassid met the others: Samar’s cousin Saja, who was studying psychology; architectural student Majdoleen, who shared Saja’s apartment; and Samar’s friend Aya, a sociology and gender studies student.
Collaboration involving photographer and subject.
The exhibited photos and quotes show the life that these young women have lived since leaving their Arab towns and villages to study in Tel Aviv. Hassid and her subjects chose the themes and compositions of the photos together to compile a personal view of the life these students live and their experiences. The photos reflect the complexity of life as a Palestinian student in Tel Aviv and as a woman with ambition in Israeli society.
To remain faithful to the world these women inhabit, the exhibition texts are presented in Dutch, English, Arabic and Hebrew.
Iris Hassid
Iris Hassid (b. 1968) lives and works in Tel Aviv, having started as a freelance photographer for various magazines and companies. Hassid has a BA in political science from Tel Aviv University and an MFA from Haifa University. Her extensive photographic projects focus mainly on the identity and culture of young women and evolve from the relationships she builds with her subjects.