About
The primary aim of Akkasah, the Photography Archive at New York University Abu Dhabi, is to explore the histories and contemporary practices of photography in the Middle East and North Africa, and to establish a major hub for scholarly research on photography in the region. The Middle East and North Africa have rich traditions of documentary, vernacular, and art photography and these traditions have yet to receive the full critical attention they deserve. Akkasah investigates these histories and practices in dialogue with other photographic cultures and traditions from around the world.
Akkasah’s activities include:
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- The creation of an archive of photographs from the Middle East and North Africa
- Developing an ongoing program of conferences and colloquia on photography from the region and on photography in its global aspects
Producing a series of publications that reflect the scholarly and archival concerns of the center - Commissioning new documentary projects on the diverse cultures and communities of the United Arab Emirates
- Establishing a special collection of rare photobooks from around the world
Inviting applications for research fellowships in the area of Middle Eastern and North African photography through the Research Fellowships in the Humanities program funded by the NYUAD Institute.
Team
Shamoon Zamir
DirectorShamoon Zamir is Associate Professor of Literature & Art History, NYU Abu Dhabi. Zamir works in and across the areas of literature, photography, art, and intellectual history. Dark Voices, his study of the African American writer W.E.B. Du Bois explored literature’s dialogues with philosophy and sociology, and The Gift of the Face explores the relationship of aesthetics and ethics in the work of the photographer Edward S. Curtis and examines the ways in which image and text, art and science, pictorialist photography, and anthropology come together in Curtis’s portraits of Native Americans. Photography and Citizenship is a book-length examination (in progress) of the famous ‘Family of Man’ exhibition from the 1950s and its global reception in the context of the Cold War. Helen Levitt: New York 1939 is a reading of a single photograph. Zamir has also translated short stories from Urdu. Zamir studied at the University of London and has taught at the University of Chicago, York University, and the University of London before joining NYUAD.
DirectorShamoon Zamir is Associate Professor of Literature & Art History, NYU Abu Dhabi. Zamir works in and across the areas of literature, photography, art, and intellectual history. Dark Voices, his study of the African American writer W.E.B. Du Bois explored literature’s dialogues with philosophy and sociology, and The Gift of the Face explores the relationship of aesthetics and ethics in the work of the photographer Edward S. Curtis and examines the ways in which image and text, art and science, pictorialist photography, and anthropology come together in Curtis’s portraits of Native Americans. Photography and Citizenship is a book-length examination (in progress) of the famous ‘Family of Man’ exhibition from the 1950s and its global reception in the context of the Cold War. Helen Levitt: New York 1939 is a reading of a single photograph. Zamir has also translated short stories from Urdu. Zamir studied at the University of London and has taught at the University of Chicago, York University, and the University of London before joining NYUAD.
Jon Burr
Digital Collections Management ArchivistSince 2016, Jon Burr has worked on a variety of collections at Akkasah, including the digitization of the Samir Farid collection, a collection of negatives created on the sets of Egyptian films from throughout the 20th century. His professional interests lie primarily in digitization and online access to digital research materials, especially endangered archives that have become inaccessible, overlooked, or are in immediate danger of physical deterioration. Jon holds a MLitt in Archives and Records Management from the University of Dundee.
Digital Collections Management ArchivistSince 2016, Jon Burr has worked on a variety of collections at Akkasah, including the digitization of the Samir Farid collection, a collection of negatives created on the sets of Egyptian films from throughout the 20th century. His professional interests lie primarily in digitization and online access to digital research materials, especially endangered archives that have become inaccessible, overlooked, or are in immediate danger of physical deterioration. Jon holds a MLitt in Archives and Records Management from the University of Dundee.
