The photographs seen here were taken by Amer Sweidan at the 2014 Arab Bloggers Meeting in Amman, Jordan. Below, Amer describes the collaborative process of the project.
A few artists from the Arab Bloggers Meeting arranged a small brainstorming session, its purpose to come up with a collaborative art project to be presented in the last day of the meeting. That is when the photo series idea came to light.
The idea of this project was to bring our voices together, expressing various messages for change and to show that we are one community despite our differences.
I asked each participant to write down one statement that reflects their struggles or hopes as a journalist, blogger or an activist. Later on, Ahmed Asery wrote these out in calligraphic style.
The biggest challenge during the photoshoot was to convey the subject’s thought and make it reflect on their faces in order to create powerful and expressive portraits. I had to ask each participant to hold their statement, take a moment, and think about it. That way, the messages and thoughts would manifest themselves externally, and help to pass on the participants’ message.
Taking into account the short time I had to complete the project, lack of equipment and lack of space, I am satisfied with the results. I am thankful for the teamwork the participants provided, 7iber’s help during the shoot, Ahmed Asery’s help in calligraphy, and the participants’ excitement.
Visit Amer's website [1] to see the full series. These photos are all under copyright. We have reproduced them here with Amer's permission.