Books on Middle Eastern Art & Culture

Rania Matar: L'Enfant-Femme

Published by Damiani.
Introduction by Her Majesty Queen Noor. Text by Lois Lowry. Afterword by Kristen Gresh.

In today’s world of endless photographing, tagging and posting images online, what is a pre-teen girl’s relationship to the camera? Upending assumptions of contemporary digital image-making practices, photographer Rania Matar (born 1964) reframes these young women through her poignant portraits of them, revealing in L’Enfant-Femme how girls between the ages of 8 and 13 interact with the camera and in so doing depicts them in deeply personal and poetic ways. Addressing themes of representation, voyeurism and transgression, these images remind us of the fragility of youth while also gesturing toward its unbridled curiosity and joy. Photographing girls in the Middle East and the United States, Matar makes us examine our universality, a beauty that transcends place, background and religion. Candidly capturing her subjects at a critical juncture in the early stages of adolescence, Matar conveys the confluence of angst, sexuality and personhood that defines the progression from childhood into adulthood.

PUBLISHER
Damiani

BOOK FORMAT
Clth, 9.5 x 12.5 in. / 152 pgs / 97 color.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 2/23/2016
Active

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: SPRING 2016 p. 107   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9788862084505 TRADE
List Price: $50.00 CAD $67.50

AVAILABILITY
Out of stock

She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World

Published by MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Text by Kristen Gresh. Foreword by Michket Krifa.

She Who Tells a Story introduces the pioneering work of 12 leading women photographers from Iran and the Arab world: Jananne Al-Ani, Boushra Almutawakel, Gohar Dashti, Rana El Nemr, Lalla Essaydi, Shadi Ghadirian, Tanya Habjouqa, Rula Halawani, Nermine Hammam, Rania Matar, Shirin Neshat and Newsha Tavakolian. As the Middle East has undergone unparalleled change over the past 20 years, and national and personal identities have been dismantled and rebuilt, these artists have tackled the very notion of representation with passion and power. Their provocative images, which range in style from photojournalism to staged and manipulated visions, explore themes of gender stereotypes, war and peace, and personal life, all the while confronting nostalgic Western notions about women of the Orient and exploring the complex political and social landscapes of their home regions. Enhanced with biographical and interpretive essays, and including more than 100 stunning reproductions, this book challenges us to set aside preconceptions about this part of the world and share in the vision of a group of vibrant artists as they claim the right to tell their own stories in images of great sophistication, expressiveness and beauty.

PUBLISHER
MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

BOOK FORMAT
Hardcover, 9 x 9 in. / 168 pgs / 140 color.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 9/1/2013
Out of stock indefinitely

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: FALL 2013 p. 103   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9780878468041 TRADE
List Price: $40.00 CAD $54.00 GBP £26.00

AVAILABILITY
Not available

Living Under The Crescent Moon

Domestic Culture in the Arab World

Published by Vitra Design Museum.
Edited by Alexander von Vegesack, Mateo Kries. Foreword by Alexander von Vegesack, Mateo Kries, Wim Pijbes, Kosme de Baranano. Text by Sebastien Boulay, Krin Pütt/Katrin Adolph, Annegret Nippa, Stefano Bianca, Eugen Wirth, Mateo Kries.

Living under the Crescent Moon demonstrates the diversity of domestic lifestyles to be found from Morocco to Syria and the Arab Peninsula: from the nomadic tents of the Tuareg or Bedouins to Moroccan casbahs; from the grand courtyard houses in cities such as Marrakesh, Damascus or Cairo, to buildings by twentieth-century architects. A series of essays and evocative pictures by leading photographers detail functional and fascinating examples of residential architecture alongside solutions for daily tasks and everyday objects. Contributors include Stefano Bianca, Sébastien Boulay, Mateo Kries, Annegret Nippa, Karin Pütt and Eugen Wirth, as well as photos by Deidi von Schaewen, Bruno Barbey, Thierry Mauger and Pascal & Maria Maréchaux.

PUBLISHER
Vitra Design Museum

BOOK FORMAT
Paperback, 9.75 x 13 in. / 320 pgs / 430 color.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 7/31/2013
Active

DISTRIBUTION
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Catalog: SPRING 2013 p. 171   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9783931936419 TRADE
List Price: $75.00 CAD $99.00

AVAILABILITY
In stock

Beatrice Minda: Iran, Interrupted

Published by Hatje Cantz.
Text by Catherine David, Asghar Farhadi.

German photographer Beatrice Minda (born 1968) explores the relationship between domestic space, memory and history. Following her previous volume, Inner World, which depicted Romanian interiors, this volume portrays the homes of Iranian citizens, in similarly exquisite yet highly informal fashion.

PUBLISHER
Hatje Cantz

BOOK FORMAT
Hardcover, 9.75 x 11.75 in. / 152 pgs / 92 color.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 5/26/2015
Active

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: FALL 2013 p. 193   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9783775736121 FLAT40
List Price: $60.00 CAD $79.00

AVAILABILITY
Out of stock

Kai Wiedenhöfer: Book of Destruction

Published by Steidl.

For more than 20 years Kai Wiedenhöfer has been taking photographs in the Middle East, a place where many journalists and photographers have covered the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet Wiedenhöfer is unique in that he concentrates exclusively on Gaza, and often remains there to take photos long after the media has moved onto more 'pressing' news stories. Even in 2009 after the offensive of the Israeli army, Wiedenhöfer remained in Gaza. During this time he took disturbingly quiet, almost repetitive pictures of the bleak aftermath of the war that form The Book of Destruction. Wiedenhöfer´s images of crumbling ruins and maimed civilians are a powerful landscape of disquiet and destruction.

PUBLISHER
Steidl

BOOK FORMAT
Clth, 8.5 x 11.75 in. / 160 pgs / illustrated throughout.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 7/20/2011
Active

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: FALL 2014

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9783869302072 TRADE
List Price: $75.00 CAD $99.00

AVAILABILITY
In stock

Shirin Neshat: Afterwards

Published by Silvana Editoriale.
Edited and interview by Abdellah Karroum. Foreword by H.E. Sheikha Mayassa. Text by Negar Azimi, Steven Henry Madoff.

In this book and the exhibition it accompanies, Shirin Neshat (born 1957) looks at the connections between ancient history and the politics of the present in works that employ photography, calligraphy, poetry and filmmaking to explore the primal concepts of violence, passion and love that drive human history. These include the various photographic series Neshat produced in the early 1990s and two video installations that address the historical, cultural and political realities on which the artist has focused for the past 30 years. In the photographic series Women of Allah (1993-97), the artist expresses her position on the situation in Iran following the Islamic Revolution in 1979. In her more recent series, The Book of Kings (2012) and Our House Is on Fire (2013), Neshat responds to political events throughout the Arab world, capturing the emotions of people she met after the Arab Spring.

PUBLISHER
Silvana Editoriale

BOOK FORMAT
Paperback, 8.75 x 10.75 in. / 192 pgs / 80 color.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 11/24/2015
Active

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: FALL 2015 p. 136   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9788836630868 TRADE
List Price: $45.00 CAD $60.00

AVAILABILITY
Out of stock

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian: Cosmic Geometry

Published by Damiani/Third Line.
Edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Karen Marta. Text by Nader Ardalan, Media Farzin, Eleanor Sims. Conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist.

Born in 1924 in the ancient Persian city of Qazvin, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian spent her childhood in a grand old house replete with stained glass, wall paintings and nightingales. Coming of age during World War II, she left occupied Iran and audaciously set out for New York, where she was quickly absorbed into the city's thriving avant garde. In the decades to follow, during successive exiles in Tehran and New York, Farmanfarmaian developed an intuitive yet painstakingly crafted artistic practice in mirror mosaic and reverse-painted glass that weds the cosmic patterning of her Iranian heritage with the rhythms of modern Western geometric abstraction. This book is the first substantial survey of Farmanfarmaian's acclaimed geometric works, and features an in-depth interview by Hans Ulrich Obrist; critical essays by Nader Ardalan, Media Farzin and Eleanor Sims; warm tributes by Farmanfarmaian's friends Etel Adnan, Siah Armajani, caraballo-farman, Golnaz Fathi, Hadi Hazavei, Susan Hefuna, Aziz Isham, Rose Issa, Faryar Javaherian, Abbas Kiarostami, Shirin Neshat, Donna Stein and Frank Stella; an excerpt from The Sense of Unity: The Sufi Tradition in Persian Architecture by Nader Ardalan and Laleh Bakhtiar (1973); and an annotated timeline of Farmanfarmaian's life by Negar Azimi.
"A role model for the artist of the twenty-first century." -Hans Ulrich Obrist

PUBLISHER
Damiani/Third Line

BOOK FORMAT
Hardcover, 9.75 x 11.75 in. / 256 pgs / illustrated throughout.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 10/31/2011
Out of stock indefinitely

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: FALL 2011 p. 65   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9788862081757 TRADE
List Price: $70.00 CAD $92.50

AVAILABILITY
Not available

Nicoló Degiorgis: Hidden Islam

Islamic Makeshift Places of Worship in North East Italy, 2009-2013

Published by Rorhof.
Edited by Nicoló Degiorgis, Martin Parr. Introduction by Martin Parr.

In Italy the right to worship without discrimination is enshrined in the constitution. There are 1.35 million Muslims in Italy and yet, officially, only eight mosques in the whole country. Consequently, the Muslim population has been relegated to a huge number of makeshift places of worship; garages, shops, warehouses and old factories have become host to prayer. Hidden Islam offers a peek inside Italy's invisible Islam. Photographer Nicolò Degiorgis explores the various temporary mosques in Northeast Italy, where anti-Islamic campaigns and the shortage of worship spaces are particularly acute. Seemingly dull black-and-white images of the diverse building exteriors are printed on folded pages, but upon opening the gatefold, full-color scenes inside these mosques are revealed. The images are arranged by building type (shop, warehouse, apartment).

PUBLISHER
Rorhof

BOOK FORMAT
Hardcover, 6.5 x 9.5 in. / 90 pgs / 43 color / 84 bw.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 10/27/2015
Out of stock indefinitely

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: FALL 2015 p. 109   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9788890981708 TRADE
List Price: $45.00 CAD $60.00 GBP £40.00

AVAILABILITY
Not available

Scarlett Coten: Still Alive

Published by Actes Sud.
Text by Scarlett Coten.

Between 2000 and 2002, French photographer Scarlett Coten traveled throughout Egypt's Sinai desert, recording her encounters with the region's inhabitants, the Bedouins. Beyond the framework of sociological or documentary journalism, this intimate travelogue captures Coten's interactions with a semi-tribal people, and reveals the surprising persistence of Bedouin culture and traditions in a rapidly changing world.

PUBLISHER
Actes Sud

BOOK FORMAT
Hardcover, 6 x 8 in. / 144 pgs / 66 color.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date 10/31/2010
Active

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: FALL 2010 p. 129   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9782742787241 TRADE
List Price: $39.95 CAD $53.95 GBP £34.99

AVAILABILITY
In stock