Daleel Al-Khrijeen دليل الخريجين | Ra’afat Zreiq

Ra’afat Zreiq

The struggle for survival through the image

I, a Palestinian photographer from Nazareth, stand in front of Jewish Holocaust survivors who tell me about their horrific experiences and their lives after the nazis killed their family members. I come to the meeting worried and tense. What will they think of me, an Arab man interested in Jewish society? Our sessions always end with intimate conversations where everyone expresses their opinions. I photograph them and record their memories; they might tell me things they never told anyone else. They talk about their life before the death camps and what happened afterward. They describe the Nazi soldiers who plundered their property and confiscated their photographs. I listen to them and photograph them without controlling or manipulating them. I believe in the power of the camera to describe reality. Being Palestinian makes it possible to look at what connects us. There are many similarities but also differences between us. Still, we're all here in the same place, in the same room, on both sides of the camera