Rula Halawani (born 1964) is a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

photographer and educator who lives and works in Jerusalem.

Early life and education

She was born in

East Jerusalem East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the portion of Jerusalem that was Jordanian annexation of the West Bank, held by Jordan after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel. Captured and occupied in 1967, th ...

and received a BA in photography from the

University of Saskatchewan The University of Saskatchewan (U of S, or USask) is a Universities in Canada, Canadian public university, public research university, founded on March 19, 1907, and located on the east side of the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, Saskatch ...

and an MA in photographic studies from the

University of Westminster The University of Westminster is a public university, public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first Polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic to open in London. The Po ...

Life and work

Before turning to visual arts, she worked as a

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

photojournalist for a number of magazines and newspapers. Halawani's photography is focused on Palestinian life and the political conflicts of the area. Emmanuel d’Autreppe, writing for AWARE Women Artist, suggest Halawani's "first works reflect the weight of everyday life and the inequity of restrictions as well as the state of siege, its large-scale consequences and its media coverage, both local and international." She documents experiences of Palestinians with checkpoints and X-ray scanning machines through projects such as ''The Wall'' (2005) and ''The Bride is Beautiful, But She is Married to Another Man'' (2016). Halawani experiments with infrared filters and X-ray technology in her works to create effects of distortion. Her work has appeared in exhibitions in London, in Dubai, in Beirut, at Darat al Funun - The Khalid Shoman Foundation in

Amman Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...

, at the

Sharjah Biennial The Sharjah Biennial is a large-scale contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in the city of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. The first Sharjah Biennial took place in 1993, and was organized by the Sharjah Department of Cu ...

, at the

National Museum of Women in the Arts The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), located in Washington, D.C., is "the first museum in the world solely dedicated" to championing women through the arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay. Since openi ...

, at the Noorderlicht festival, in Rome, at

Le Botanique Le Botanique () is a cultural complex and music venue in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Brussels, Belgium. The building was previously the main orangery of the National Botanic Garden of Belgium and even as part of the garden had hosted cultural event ...

in Brussels, at the Busan Biennale in South Korea and at the

Arab World Institute The Institut du Monde Arabe (, ''Arab World Institute''; abbr. IMA) is an organisation founded in Paris in 1980 by France with 18 Arab countries to research and disseminate information about the Arab world and its cultural and spiritual values. ...

in Paris. In 2016, she was given a residency fellowship at the Camargo Foundation, in

Cassis Cassis (; Occitan: ''Cassís'') is a commune situated east of Marseille in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, whose coastline is known in English as the French Riviera, in Southern France. It is a ...

. Halawani is director of the photography department at

Birzeit University Birzeit University () is a public university in the West Bank, Palestine, registered by the Palestinian Ministry of Social Affairs as a charitable organization. It is accredited by the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Mini ...

Collections

Halawani's work is held in the following permanent collections: *

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

, Paris *

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

, London *

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, London *

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. The permanent collection of the museum spans more than 5,000 years of history with nearly 80,000 works from six continents. Follo ...

*Darat al Funun - The Khalid Shoman Foundation, Amman *Nadour Collection, Germany

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Halawani, Rula 1964 births Living people 20th-century Palestinian photographers Palestinian women photographers University of Saskatchewan alumni Alumni of the University of Westminster Academic staff of Birzeit University 21st-century Palestinian photographers 20th-century Palestinian women artists 21st-century Palestinian women artists