Haunted Spaces: Photographs Explore the Arab Female Identity

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Chelsea Matiash

“Converging Territories #24″ by Lalla Essaydi

HAWAII---For the past six years, Moroccan-born photographer Lalla Essaydi has labored over a body of photographs made in a large, unoccupied home in her native country. The house is not just a distant studio space, though; it is a vital part of the narrative in Ms. Essaydi’s images that explore the Arab female identity. Ms. Essaydi’s work, made on large-format cameras and printed directly from unaltered negatives, incorporates Islamic calligraphy and Orientalist imagery from Western painting traditions while revisiting memories of her girlhood in Morocco. Ms. Essaydi’s work is on view in exhibitions at Jackson Fine Art in Atlanta  and at The Honolulu Museum of Art. [link]