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Exhibition

Akkasah: Illuminating History Through Photography

Posted on by Maxine P

This summer, Akkasah, the photography archive at NYU Abu Dhabi’s al Mawrid Arab Center for the Study of Art, released 1,500 digitized photographs from across the Middle East, with some photographs dating back to the 19th century. Located within the NYU Abu Dhabi Library, this remarkable collection houses a treasure trove of images that chronicle the history, culture, and transformation of the Middle East and beyond.

A black and white image of two woman in the back of a car with a male drive in the front.

An example from the archive: Taken in 1949 by Ibrahim Omara, this image of Egyptian actresses Aziza Helmy and Laily Fawzy in the back of a car is available in the Samir Farid Collection.
Reference ID: ref34_000002

 

Origins of the Archive

This fascinating collection of the photographic heritage of the Middle East was established in 2014 by Professor Shamoon Zamir, who still serves as its director. “When I joined NYU Abu Dhabi, I very much wanted to make some kind of contribution to work in the region,” says Professor Zamir. After noticing a lack of Middle Eastern photography archives, he designed Akkasah to be completely accessible, both online and in person.

 Akkasah acquires photos from donations, family albums, studios, and even flea markets. They also work with people who allow Akkasah to digitally archive their collections while they retain the physical copies of their photographs. 

 Once collected, each photo is individually cataloged with any available metadata, such as the subject matter and location. Although most archives catalog their collections folder by folder, Akkasah catalogs each photograph. It’s a time-consuming process, but the extensive metadata and easy searchability put Akkasah in a class of its own.

 Scholarly Impact

With its diverse collection of roughly 40,000 images spanning the late 1800s to the present, Akkasah provides a unique window into the past. Anthropologists, historians, and social scientists from around the world have access to this invaluable resource, offering insights into education, religion, fashion, and more.

 “There are both amazing surprises and expected things in there,” says Professor Zamir. Some subjects provoke questions, for instance, two women kissing in a Cairo photobooth in the 1940s.

 Beyond its role as a scholarly resource, Akkasah opens its doors to students and the wider community by hosting exhibitions, seminars, and lectures. They have taught workshops on skills such as archiving and constructing photo books. And anyone can browse the archive in person or online. 

 “Anyone, academic or nonacademic, can make an appointment and see whatever they want to see,” says Professor Zamir. “In fact, we very much welcome it.”

 Professional Development Opportunities

For students who want to learn even more about archiving, Akkasah offers paid internships. Undergraduates can gain valuable experience in photography, digitization, and curation.

A studio portrait of a seated woman wearing a dark dress

An example from the archive: This studio portrait of a seated woman comes from the Kadikoy Foto Aile in Turkey and is available in the Ozge Calafato Collection.
Reference ID: ref263

Emily Broad, a Raleigh, North Carolina, native who graduated from NYU Abu Dhabi in 2022 with a degree in Art and Art History, is one former intern. “Akkasah is one of the reasons why I applied to NYU Abu Dhabi,” says Emily. “I was able to develop my interest in photography not only as a practice but also as an academic discipline.”

 As part of a summer research project, she cataloged a collection from the granddaughter of Butti Bin Bishr who worked closely with Sheikh Zayed, the United Arab Emirates’ founder. “I spent the whole summer talking with her and going through each image, dating them and writing descriptions. That was a unique experience because I got to work with someone who was high-level in the UAE as well as form a relationship with her through the archival work.”

 Building on the skills she learned, Emily went on to do an internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is now pursuing her PhD in Visual and Cultural Studies at the University of Rochester.

 A Cultural Reservoir

Perhaps one of the archive’s most important roles is the preservation of cultural heritage. It documents traditions, customs, and art forms, helping safeguard the rich cultural tapestry of the Middle East. Anyone can stop in to reconstruct narratives, explore societal changes, and gain insights into the past.

Emily encourages students to take advantage of the unique resource. “Akkasah gives you a different look at the region than what people are used to, especially if you’re an American student,” she says. “I feel like we have preconceived notions about the Arab world that working with Akkasah really changed for me.”

Written by Kelsey Rexroat

Revealing Traces of a Forgotten Diaspora

Posted on , modified on by Chelsea Robles

Next week, James D. Fernández, site director of NYU Madrid and professor of Spanish Literature and Culture, and Luis Argeo, a journalist and filmmaker from Asturias, Spain, will launch a fascinating multi-media exhibit that takes the viewer on the personal journeys of emigrants who settled in the US generations ago.

From the 23rd of January to the 12th of April, the Invisible Emigrants exhibit will be on hosted at the Centro Cultural Conde Duque in Madrid, Spain. Read more in excerpts from the brochure below, on the exhibit’s blog, Spanish Immigrants in the United States, and Facebook Group (also titled Spanish Immigrants in the United States).

Out of invisibility: about the project

Tens of thousands of working-class Spaniards emigrated to the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Their story is largely unknown, invisible, in both Spain and the US. For the last ten years, [Fernández and Argeo] have been struggling to make this story visible, before it disappears for good. They’ve knocked on doors all over Spain and the US, gaining permission to digitize and analyze family archives, and rescuing from rusty cookie tins and crumbling family albums, the primary sources that chronicle the quiet heroism of the protagonists of this forgotten diaspora.

The project

Now, with the support and leadership of the Fundación Consejo España – EE. UU., Fernández and Argeo are embarking on their most ambitious project to date: serving as the curators of a major, multi-media exhibition, which will open in Madrid in January, 2020 at Madrid’s Centro Cultural Conde Duque, before traveling around Spain and the US. The exhibition will use the photographs, documents, film footage and objects they found in the homes of the descendants of immigrants, in order to reconstruct the textures and trials, the spirit and sentiment, of this fascinating but almost lost chapter in the history of immigration and in the history Spain-US relations.

Enlarge

Jim-and-Luis
Luis Argeo (left) and James Fernández (right)

Photo by: Juan de la Fuenta

 

Behind the scenes: about the producers

 

The Fundación Consejo España – EE. UU. was created in 1997 to strengthen links between Spanish and American society and institutions, to promote mutual understanding and joint ventures of all sorts between the two countries.

Diseñar América: El trazado español de los Estados Unidos–Designing America: Spain’s Imprint in the US was the first major exhibition project created and promoted by the foundation. This prestigious show, which opened at the National Library in Madrid and has traveled to Washington D.C., Houston (TX), Santa Barbara (CA) and San Antonio (TX), allowed the foundation to consolidate experience and “know how” in managing cultural exhibitions on both sides of the Atlantic.

With this experience under our belt, the Fundación – in collaboration with Madrid City Council – has now assumed the production, management, and seed sponsorship of the exhibition Invisible Emigrants, with the firm conviction that this new project will make visible a fascinating and unknown shared history, and advance the core mission of our organization.

To date, the exhibition is sponsored by New York University and the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center Foundation of NYU; the Spanish companies Técnicas Reunidas and Navantia; the United States Embassy in Spain and the Franklin Institute of the University of Alcalá de Henares (University Institute for Research on North America).