By MatT Masjak
Renowned Israeli poet Yehuda Amichi once reflected in a poem about tourists visiting Jerusalem:
“A group of tourists was standing around their guide and I became their target marker. “You see that man with the baskets? Just right of his head there’s an arch from the Roman period. Just right of his head.” “But he’s moving, he’s moving!”
As tourists there can be a subconscious temptation to see the places one visits as frozen in time, a piece of history or culture that exists for us to admire rather than a place someone next to us might call home. These photos are selections from a series which seeks to combat that impulse by framing these places not as tourist destinations but as places around which life happens. They were taken two years ago when I participated in the Duke in the Arab World summer study program in Morocco and Tunisia, during which we took several day trips on weekends to various cities. On paper the subjects of the series are fairly simple: painted tiles, a child playing in the plaza, a man in thought at the mosque, a seat by the window, a man walking where he should not be; but there is something compelling to me about making space for simplicity or even mundanity in unfamiliar places, and I hope others feel the same.
Painted Tiles
Practicing His Handstand
Silhouette of a Young Man in Thought
An Afternoon Stroll
A Seat by the Window
About the Photographer
Matt is a Junior at Duke University majoring in International Comparative Studies with a concentration in the Middle East as well as Arabic. He is particularly interested in learning the ways in which different cultural aspects of contemporary MENA+ region (and their histories) impact broader geopolitical activities. As such, his study of the MENA+ region has ranged from the study of Arabic literature and arts movements, to different Islamic practices, to formal and informal engagement with civil society, to an examination of social media movements. Occasionally his outside passion for the arts, particularly music and poetry, finds its way into his analyses as points in which he can connect intimately with this culture that is in many ways both profoundly different and similar to his own. It is further informed from the fortunate experience of being able to travel to Morocco and Tunisia and learn from being present in the region for a significant amount of time. Most simply, Matt is creating from a place of love and appreciation for the many cultures of the MENA+ region.