Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Photographer and photojournalist Tarek Al-Ghoussein, born in Kuwait in 1962, currently resides in the United Arab Emirates. His work is inspired by the both the prejudice and restrictions Palestinians confront not only in the West, but also the East. Self-Portrait (2002 – ), for instance, stages solitary individuals in a Keffiyeh in front of airplanes or ships. Initially the viewer might suspect foul play, but it's obvious that the image is innocuous, and thus forcing the viewer to confront their reflexive suspicion of Keffiyeh-clad Middle Easterners.
Sometimes life mimics art: In 2003, Al-Ghoussein was accosted by a Jordanian police officer while taking a self-portrait in a Keffiyeh. A 22-hour interrogation followed. “What was I doing, who was I, why was I wearing the Palestinian scarf, why that particular scarf—not the red scarf or the other type of black scarf? And it just made me realize how charged that scarf was. And how much, even in the Middle East, it has become almost a symbol of terrorism,” Tarek recalled. Apart from fear, there's the barriers. His recent photographs of desert barriers evoke the actual barriers that imped the movement of Palestinians both inside and outside their homeland. Al-Ghoussein has never set foot on Palestine.
Untitled 5 (2008). Stuck in a trench, despite the opening, the figure is immobile.
Untitled 10 – B Series (2005-06).
Untitled 9 – Self Portrait Series (2002-03).
Untitled 8 – Self Portrait Series (2002-2003).
Untitled 2 – Self Portrait Series (2002-2003).
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Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
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