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CAMPING

Part 2

Dheisheh Refugee Camp  I   Westbank, Palestine  I   2022

                                                                                                                           

After completing my studies in sociology, I moved to Tel Aviv. In addition, I received a working grant from the Federal Chancellery for a photographic project in the Palestinian West Bank. I was looking for housing on site. There were many options in cities like Ramallah or Bethlehem, but an apartment in a refugee camp seemed like the most interesting, sociologically speaking.                                              
How does society in a 60 years old refugee camp operate? How do the precarious living conditions affect the individuals? How is society organized? What structures are found? And how will it impact my personality, my own patterns of behavior, and views?                                                                                                                                  
The daily routine is influenced by the Muslim culture and religion, a life between Haram and Halal, the forbidden and the permitted. The individual scope in between is minimal, especially for women. My arrival

as a single woman in the camp was seen with great astonishment by the residents.                                                   
Quickly I was considered an Israeli or Palestinian spy and of course a cheap woman. Countless visible and invisible eyes were observing me as soon as I stepped out of my apartment.                                                        
In June 2014, the war in the Gaza Strip started, public life froze, there were daily protests and military operations in the camp. Suffering, misery and death were omnipresent.                                                                  
An idiosyncratic relationship with the camp society formed. On the one hand, many cultural and social paradigms were incomprehensible to me, on the other hand I felt very close to the community emotionally.      

    
After a few returns, little by little mutual confidence built up. At some point, I was no longer a stranger, I decided to realize a photographic series in the camp.                                                                                

But there was a big question: "What does one show?"                                                                                   


"Camping" is an attempt to depict my perceived atmosphere in the refugee camp.     

Camping_Verena Andrea Prenner_26.jpg
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