“Our eyes seldom encounter Palestine before the Israeli regime, a Palestine defined not by its ailments but by its industries and cultures. Yet it is important to resist the urge to romanticize that era. One must situate these photographs within the proper socioeconomic context and ask about what is not represented in these images: Who had access to cameras? Who was behind those cameras? What can be said of those who lived far from the flashbulbs and tape recorders? Where do we look for their fossilized legacies? The tessella of beautiful, unseen photographs that forms as you turn these pages is as illuminating as it is incomplete.”

This photograph shows a Christmas celebration at the Nahda Women’s Association in Ramallah, held for children with special needs. Courtesy of the Palestinian Museum Digital Archive.

and shoutout to Donnabelle who makes a short yet striking appearance, i can only guess she was my grandpa’s sister’s friend who came up one weekend and they just had so much fun with the camera

photos from 1946