June 6 – July 30, 2009

Legacy Maltwood (at Mearns Centre – McPherson Library)

Curated by Robbyn Gordon Lanning

This exhibit features photography by the al Manaja’as, a Bedouin family of the Howeitat trib from Humayma, Jordan. In collaboration with UVic Graduate student, Robbyn Gordon Lanning, members of the al Manja’a family take images of their community, family and daily life. These images are key to investigating how the al Manaja’as see photography as a way of documenting their lives and experiences for themselves, their families, and for cultural outsiders.

As residents of Humayma, a region of great historical cultural exchange, members of the al Manaja’a family possess complex relationships with photography. The family has spent many years cultivating personal photographic albums comprised of images made by visiting cultural outsiders, and more recently, have participated as representatives of the Humayma community through photographic exhibits created for local museum spaces. These exhibits, co-currated by Robbyn Gordon Lanning, brought together Ms. Gordon and the al Manaja’a family together through their shared interest in photography. The relationship formed during this initial project acted as a catalyst inspiring their most recent collaborative research.

The photographs featured in this exhibition were created by members of the al Manaja’a family to describe their experiences of community, place, family, relationship and identity as seen through their own lenses.