Interview
Tanya Habjouqa: “I try to surprise you”
In the world of photojournalism, the Middle East is never far from our eyes. Based in East Jerusalem, Tanya Habjouqa captures images that defy the cliché and stereotype. Keith Wilson gains an insight into her unique way of storytelling…
For Tanya Habjouqa, travel has never been easy – even before COVID-19. For the past year, she’s been grounded like the rest of us, but it is her family heritage, upbringing and nationality that makes her the subject of added scrutiny, especially when crossing international borders. Her predicament is likely best explained by sharing her own words to the questions I put to her when trying to check the salient facts that are integral to her sense of identity. “Tanya, help me get this right: you’re Jordanian and went to university in Texas, as well as in London?” “Yes, that’s right.”
“And you live in East Jerusalem with your husband who is Palestinian?”
Tanya nods.
“And, like your husband, you’re a citizen of Israel?”
Tanya shakes her head. “That is the closest to correct that I’ve ever heard! No, I’m not a citizen of Israel, I’m there on a residency. I’m a dual national, Jordanian-born. I’m from a minority group in Jordan called the
Circassians, so my father is from Jordan and my mother is Texan. They divorced when I was young, so I would go back and forth. I have both of those passports (Jordanian and American), and the majority of my schooling was in Texas, including university. So even though I have residency here (Israel) and I have the privilege of having a husband who is a Palestinian citizen of Israel, my American passport, saying born in Jordan with Arab heritage, definitely makes mobility difficult.”
It’s complicated. However, this is what helps make Tanya Habjouqa’s images so striking, and her photo stories unique and compelling…
With all these cultural influences, as well as your heritage, how have they shaped your identity and the perspective you adopt for work? It’s a great question and one that I’m constantly navigating. When I was much younger I didn’t understand the gift that it was, the privilege, because I found myself in my early 20s getting more opportunities as a Jordanian breaking into the business than an American. But then I’d also find myself being viewed as ‘local’, almost a disparaging term: ‘a local photographer’; viewed as someone who’s going to come with their own baggage, unlike the ‘parachute journalist’ who’s going to come in and will show more insight because they’re not emotionally connected to the story. So, I cannot help but reflect upon the audience, because I have that conflict of how information is received and viewed, and I grew up relying on and receiving news from different places.
I guess I’ve always been a bit cynical – whatever discipline you put me in I wanted to push against it