Girls watch the sun set at the harbor in Gaza City. ©Monique Jaques
This summer, Department of Photography and Imaging alum Monique Jaques (BFA '08) published Gaza Girls: Growing Up in the Gaza Strip, based on her long-term project documenting the lives of young Palestinian women and girls. The project caught the attention of the online publication Photojournalism Now, who interviewed Jaques in an August feature:
"Since...2013 Jaques has travelled to Gaza numerous times, pursuing a story that has not been told, that of the daily lives of Palestinian girls and young women...
At the heart of social documentary photography lies the common understanding of what it means to be human. In the pages of Jaques’ book...she captures those qualities, taking us beyond the stereotypical visage of Gaza as a war zone...
She says, 'I felt like this work was a necessary contribution to the discussion around Gaza, which is so often centred around violence, and their stories could be amplified through a book with their writings and images.'"
Gaza Girls is published by FotoEvidence, whose mission is to publish long-form documentary photography projects focused on human rights and social injustice.