This is the Erez Crossing a checkpoint between israel and the gaza strip. Close to 2000000 palestinians live on the other side of this spence. Theyve been launching isolated from the rest of the world for more than a decade. The lives that the people who live here are shaped by the unresolved conflict between israelis and palestinians. More winterize the helping to preserve gazas history. This box contains 1st across from the 1940 s. Through the 1970 s. They passed of a huge collection from the former care home photo studio which was later in the care of terai and his family. This is a picture of anwar sadat when he was a young officer in gaza these photos were taken by a camera. And heres a picture of Mohamed Nasheed the 1st president of the arab republic of egypt a lot of the. Other to give this a shake of honor when he came to gaza in 1959 he was welcomed by the mayor and some other local dignitaries. Here shay meeting some egyptian officers who worked for the military administration. This is the train station or the railroad connected cars and egypt station was later told on. Film a once around see these photos i treasure trove of gazas history the negatives and prints reflect the culture and identity of the local residents. But only a few of the photographs have survived many were not properly stored and suffered significant damage from oyster some of the negatives will never developed. The date and location of the 1st 2 graphs were not always recorded. The 1st graphs were taken by can see how young he was born in armenia in 1915 his mother fled the Armenian Genocide and took her infant son with her to syria care how malaysia settled in jerusalem and in the early 1940 s. Moved to gaza where he started working as a photographer. Tell you about cattle he started his photography studio of 947. Broken europe in 1900 many palestinians fled to gaza in the west bank. Had experienced a similar situation in armenia. Armenia. He considered gaza his 2nd home and started taking pictures of various events including the war. The archive all of his photos so that future generations could see that. My want to randy is trying to preserve this material because it provides a detailed account of gazas rich and turbulent history with displacement and loss looming large in peoples collective memory. And how many others took these dramatic pleasure crafts in 948. After the founding of the state of israel that same year the arab israeli war that followed almost immediately tens of thousands of palestinian sort refuge in gaza. Many were housed in refugee camps and 949 and United Nations agency was created to provide humanitarian aid and economic support for the refugees. Even today many refugees and their descendants still live in refugee camps like all shirty over the years they build houses and corrugated Metal Structures to replace their tents. Sharifs or han knows this area well. Hes a photographer and artist and spent many years working for the uns Palestinian Refugee relief agency. These children old 5th generation refugees many of the palestinians demand that they be allowed to return to their former homes in what is no israel and the west bank. A long time photographing you throwing me. So thats boss how did gilby. Like many palestinian photographers who came before him sharif sohan believes that its important to put a tray every day life in the stories that dont make the headlines. These crab fisherman congo far out to sea due to restrictions imposed by the israeli navy. Seal liberation through my photographs are trying to portray the rich diversity of life in gaza for the few and not however most people know about gaza is war destruction and was a blockade of the occupation of. Methodology but there are other sides to the story what is life like on the street and at home. People home. And go to work. Try to camp draw those aspects of life and marveled at the. Damage for the last. In ancient times gaza was an important mediterranean port city it was part of the Ottoman Empire until the end of world war one the british mandate of a palestine including gaza last it until 948. 00 gaza was then administered by egypt until 967 and subsequently occupied by israel following the 6 day war. A form of palestinian selfgovernment was created in 1904 with the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 2007 the radical Islamic Group hamas took over the gaza strip israel then stepped up its control of the gaza sea coast space and land routes citing security concerns that. There have been 3 wars and several smaller conflicts in gaza over the last decade Palestinian Militants sometimes fire rockets at nearby israeli towns and cities israel responds with strikes. Palestinians continue to hope for the creation of their own independent state but those hopes up a ding. The middle east Peace Process is currently store. The new generation of palestinian photographers document the ongoing conflict as part of they were. But sharif sohan also believes that he and his colleagues have an obligation to record the history of his homeland through visual representation. Through the lens of his camera he presents his own perspective on the daily lives of gaza residents and how they see themselves. As freakiness their eyes on. I dream a lot of people enjoy looking around the world for the right to my in that they go through family photo albums to find out how their parents or grandparents are going to check or how you are trying to squeeze both important and difficult and its not limited to photographers i feel thats it and thats a task is to document the lives of palestinians today and for the next 100 years. Probably a lot easier today than it was 30 usually 7 years ago see you know cities that i had to. Give how we need to put together an archive for documents the daily lives of palestinians from the beginning of the 20th century had all of that but how should we do that. How do we develop this conference document where felt sorry for the stores that had them was that the goal is to help people learn about their history through the photographs and not just by hearing stories about what i said as i look back and look at em. Call of she reached her hand is a cofounder of the artists collective called shabab baek which means windows in arabic. It goes up. Because gaza is essentially cut off communication with the outside world is always an issue. Few people visit the strip and only a small number of gazans are able to travel by israel to the west bank or further afield. Theres a link of in the name where are the clubs. But we cant leave gaza to visit museums in london or paris or rome or anywhere else for the photo to be of and we can even go to the west bank to see the works of other artists. What delawares are beacon and how will work at the shop will be color the supreme good bringing the world to us every month or whenever we can we host events were probably still noon or foreign artists talk to us on skype and we want to promote the exchange of cultures our views and expertise. Brought on bringing all that palestinian artists in ghastly though unfairly for those under the influence the leaders of. Today my once heroes he is visiting the Traditional Market district. Look tar is one of the oldest commercial streets in gaza city. This is where i can conjure opened his photo studio in the 1940 s. Model one turn as these older brother maurice began working for cash and learning the art of photography in the 1960 s. You know its a. Sin of the water to go to. The circuit. To get. The im still submerged. In the me jump on a fish on the muscle what do you need learn. To let out a bomb so lets 1000000 active im going to be done in the middle. Of stuff which was the one thing on the whole in the film a few. Thousands of kilometers under will the way from gaza how yons photographic legacy is also being preserved in southwestern france. And he put time is the oldest daughter of the army and photographer. On the heat was born and raised in costa. What good memories i have of its happiness he was very and my mother was very welcomed in gaza she did not know how to speak arabic but she spoke french and a little bit of english then many of the families that is a twit of what age she was 20 only they became very good fence together we were very beautiful accepted to mean yes. On the hebrew tongue grew up in gaza in the 1950 s. And sixtys when the area was under egypt in military Administration Later she studied in egypt she now have so. In france with her husband. When she moved to france she brought along 1st 2 graphs of her family she left her other possessions behind in. These pictures of and taken by her father. I did go up stairs several times in fact to the dark and i would stand there with him. Now that we are talking there is the order of the whole of these chemicals that are there you know all this back back its of chemicals its coming to me that i smell a field or that i remember that on. And i would sit there with him and i was always amazed seeing pictures appearing you know slowly slowly when after it had been printed and then put in the chemicals and the picture that starts to appear. There thought this studio was a busy place. Only a few people own their own cameras. Many portraits from those days have been preserved for posterity. Everybody went to have their portraits especially. The middle class and upper middle class and lower class they all went to her portrait everybody was photographed by my father i think. That my father or my uncle or at least. The un relief and works agency for palestine refugees has its own Photo Archive in gaza. Where the photographs document the lives of refugees and their descendants over the last 70 years. Is that. You know. Theres often a lot of detective work involved in archiving these photos here. Thats particularly true of older times hess where theres little or no information on where they were taken all the people who put trade in them. The monk. In the old days they used a different system for archiving it and let you know today of the families came to the studio the photographer took the pictures made a final for each family so he marked the negatives with everyones names and stored them in a box because. I like a lot of ordinary negatives were filed without a date or any other information. So well as she was today photographers keep track of everything. Including the date and the place where the photo was taken. Not how they used to watch her. When i 1st found the archives she everything was just tossed together. In the last few years the same system for black and white and colorful we write down all of the details on the name of the photographer of the year it was printed the copyright date and the credits. Copyright it just. To look at. You know how can you. Together they look for clues as to that it has provenance or. Was this for talkers are documented and preserving promised union used to be. For trying to preserve the world. They are carved their workers are and they documented history at the same time i was on the. Recently much of this was digitized since the early 1950 s. Un photographers have been documenting the lives of Palestinian Refugees and their descendants in lebanon syria jordan the west bank and gaza. Time and time again the nights of gaza residents have been impacted by International Events like the suez canal crisis in the 1956 which led to war between egypt and israel. In 56 it was the war that with israel stayed about 5 months until march from. November to march but i remember details of that period as well in fact. As we live on the main street we were immediately sent and the children all that i mean is of that web that mostly all that into the back of the house of. They had houses near the Christian Church that. We were sent to because that was why the walls. Gaza has lots of. Houses but my father did not come because he wanted to stay a tom and he kept picturing there are lots of pictures of that i remember i dont have them. Picture a lot of the coming of the occupation of israel. Found these photographs of dead civilians in one of his books and. Its not known when where the photos were taken by whom. Even before the 956. 00 war they were frequent clashes between israeli troops and palestinian militias along the border there were casualties on all sides including civilians. The war ended in november 1956. Shortly afterwards the un sent peacekeeping troops to patrol both sides of the border between egypt and israel. They stayed until the 6 day war broke out in june 19th 67. 57 when the United Nations came in for the protection of gaza thats was. A few neath. Became almost the fleas zone. For. Egypt egyptians came to buy from gaza what they did not have. So florist enormously enormously in that period that you could feel you could see. My father work became even more for auditioning because he was the agent for. The company. For everything that. The paper of the of the films or and he was the distribute for all the other photographers and by then many other young palestinians that were working with or that with my uncle or with coco or with my father that they started their businesses as well and all over the best. During this time a number of high Profile International visitors travel to girls including shake of into 959 local newspapers reported that the communist revolution revisited the shotty refugee camp. Hollywood actor youve also visited gaza on behalf of the United Nations to call attention to the plight of refugees in the region. And in 1960 indian Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru arrived in gaza to visit indian troops who were part of the Un Peacekeeping force. Gazas landscape has changed considerably over the years. More winter and these trying to document this transformation. This is the grace of mari mosque the oldest and largest structure of its kind in the gaza strip. The centuries old building was severely damaged in world war one and rebuilt in the 1920 s. But some buildings have fallen into disrepair. Like the former al nasr cinema. Most of gazas movie theaters were shut down in the late 1980 s. Often due to Political Considerations they were seen as having a liberal influence. A number of Historic Buildings that were no longer used have been torn down like the former train station. Here marwan is visiting the site of the railroad that once operated between gaza and egypt. For them was that all along. Was. Their job on the. Top of the. Other the. Other one is among the largest. Mass. Youre going to like the government parents in fact. The days of train travel in gaza on long gone over the years restrictions on the movements of local residents have increased only specific groups of people such as those who are ill or are on business can apply for a permit to travel by israel but the application process as long and complicated. The rather Border Crossing between gaza and egypt has been frequently shut down in recent he is usually due to political tensions. Those who want to travel to egypt have to get permits from the hamas authorities and the egyptians. The food was. Good looking below the limit the playfield blueish was good enough to live on. The film the money was like a player coming to the long. Ball of things and. Im in their home is a rap music producer who collects old 1st across of goss a. Few used some of these picks his in a music video he made 3 centuries. And lots of people want to leave gaza says im on but hes decided to stay. Though i wouldnt of my from some of the great photos of gaza on the internet as well. They show that people in the gaza strip and elsewhere in palestine used to have freedom while the nation was. In the community this makes me want to write songs about the miserable conditions that we live in today and how people here used to live a fulfilling all i see is about. The economy in gaza and palestine was growing both of us who feel they had trains and an airport but theres no airport in gaza today and the solution the above is just ridiculous that back in the sixtys we had an airport in the gaza strip with the invasion. But now in 2020 we dont. Know why. Over half of gazas residents under the age of 30 most of them have never been outside the territory. Im a mere ham he says come to see a friend hes also a musician theyre going to try out a new song. Were still. Looking for musicians in gaza i dont know a lot of money youth unemployment is at 60 percent full time jobs and young people do odd jobs just to get by sometimes they families help out with money. Over the course says get me out of this cough and its not you who decides when i die i want to breathe the right now i feel like im buried its my right to experience life travel to laugh and to plan for the future and for high attrition but here in gaza i cant plan anything i dont know whats going to happen tomorrow well i still be alive how will there be a war i cant plan and i cant see the horizon. Well. Some of those who were at the would. Do what they would hope her luck was sick or less it wasnt going to console i like both has a new 1000000 innovation for good measure. And 2nd it was a good job it was good. To have. As a cube has had this guy live with that. Record in the early settlements some older folks have told us that they were happy back then mostly they say they used to travel from gaza to nazareth and other places and there were no restrictions and dick but now there are border posts im sure problems based on religion and politics are probably the whole situation has changed this year the kind of life that these older people enjoyed just doesnt exist anymore. The cliff the moment of hell emotionally real and now i havent gone to the Border Crossing in a long time about 15 years and im 26 years old so i should have done some traveling by now to experience are the people im conscious of asking but i havent. Well. Im a mere hamis teaches a rap music oath at a local Breakdown School the project is called does the lives. Red is not considered part of traditional arab music culture the artists distribute their music by the internet they have to get official permission to perform in public and the authorities usually dont grant it. Sarah has written a text about life in