The AMEA Photo Contest committee is pleased to announce the winner for its inaugural photo contest. This award is granted for original, creative, and ethnographically significant photos which help us see the work and lives of people in the Middle East/North Africa. The winner of this year’s award is Nancy Khalil. We are also pleased to share Arran Walshe as the honorable mention. Below you can find the work of both our winner and honorable mention.
Winner: Nancy Khalil:
Title: Loofah to Light
Photo 1 is taken in one of Alexandria, Egypt’s oldest markets. A peddler pushes his cart of loofahs, selling each for cents. Made from dried gourds, loofahs are considered effective and natural tools used by the wealthy and the underprivileged alike to exfoliate their skin. Photo 2 is taken on the North Coast in Egypt at a restaurant in the Marina in a UAE developed gated, elite beachfront community called Marassi. Surging from cents to dollars, the loofah is repurposed from the streets to the ceilings, illuminating the restaurant, the creativity of the interior designer, and the power of class and market in transforming the everyday object to art for the elite.
Title: Eid Morning
Any summer morning in Dumyat, Egypt between 5am-6am, there is a hush in the streets, all businesses are closed, and almost all children are fast asleep. Except on Eid. At that time on EId, the streets are bustling with families dressed in fancy clothes, heading from prayers at the mosque to the markets on all modes of transportation to buy Eid toys and eat Eid treats together, pausing to watch balloons released after a long countdown to build Eid excitement and suspense.
Honorable Mention: Arran Walshe:
A pedestrian passes under Sinak Bridge in Baghdad in July, 2021. The sweltering summer heat in Iraq, increasing year on year due to climate change, means that many Baghdadis must navigate the urban environment in novel ways, making use of any shade provided by buildings, makeshift shelters, or in this case the respite supplied by a bridge.
Mashawi cooks Tareq, Ali, and Abdullah pose in front of a fire pit on Sa’adoon St., Baghdad in July 2021, where they offer freshly grilled masguf, a famous river fish and Iraqi delicacy. Each have multiple jobs to support their families, and arrive mid-afternoon to begin the preparations for a long night of grilling.
Haydar, a local electrician, poses in Bataween, Baghdad in May, 2022. The lack of reliable power from the collapsing state grid means that handymen such as Haydar support themselves by connecting businesses to makeshift gas-powered generators that are an indelible feature of Baghdadi life; a dangerous, but lucrative vocation for those with little economic opportunity.
Committee Members:
Chair, Peter Habib, Department of Anthropology, Emory University; Marta Agosti Pinilla, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, SOAS University of London; Sa’ed Atshan, Department of Anthropology, Emory University; Susanne Dahlgren, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University