Photography sale raises funds for children and photographers in Gaza
Last month, Darat Al Tasweer — a Jordanian photography institute — created an online sale of images by photographers from across the globe for its For Gaza campaign.
Arranged by Jordanian photographer Linda Al-Khoury, founder of Darat Al Tasweer, along with photographers Iman Al-Dabbagh, Sharif Sarhan and Laura Boushnak, the print sale was set up in response to violence in Gaza in May.
Al-Khoury had been thinking about ways to help the people of Gaza when she received a message from Al-Dabbagh asking if she was planning a print sale to raise funds because she and a group of photographers were interested in organizing one. They joined forces with Sarhan and Boushnak.
The group settled on arranging an online print sale to “reach people beyond Jordan,” Al-Khoury told Arab News.
In all, they managed to get 80 photographers to each donate one image to be sold at the fixed price of $100.
“All the photographers we reached out to quickly accepted the invitation. We’re very grateful to them for their trust in us and the campaign,” Al-Khoury said.
Interest was huge, with 100 orders being placed within four days of launch, and a total of
240 prints sold by the end of the campaign. Orders came from many countries, including the US, Brazil, Australia, Gulf countries, Egypt, and Lebanon.
“The idea was for photographers to participate regardless of whether their photos were taken inside Palestine or not. The diversity helped with sales. We didn’t just want to support a cause, we also wanted people to acquire a beautiful photo, while supporting (Gaza),” Al-Khoury said.
The focus now is to direct the revenues of these sales towards “setting up funds for small production projects by Gazan photographers” as well as to “hold art-therapy sessions for children, with an attempt to cover more than one geographical area and reach as many children in Gaza as possible,” Al-Khoury explained.