Vintage Gaza Photographs Displayed in Marseille Exhibition

An exhibition titled "Photo Kegham of Gaza: Unboxing" opened at the Marseille Photography Centre and runs until September. It displays about 300 photographs taken by Kegham Djeghalian, who opened Gaza's first photo studio in 1944. The images show scenes from Gaza in the mid-20th century, including children forming a human pyramid at a refugee school, women posing beside a sewing machine, and French philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir arriving by plane in March 1967.

Djeghalian, an Armenian survivor of the 1915 genocide, lived in Gaza until his death in 1981 and documented Palestinian society during that period.

The photographer's grandson and a professor of visual culture, curated the show. He discovered more than 1,000 negatives in 2018 in Cairo and collaborated with Marwan al-Tarazi to gather additional materials before al-Tarazi was killed in October 2023. " It is scheduled to travel to Bristol in October.

Djeghalian remained in Gaza through recurring conflicts after 1948. Two-thirds of Gaza's current population are descendants of Palestinian refugees displaced in 1948, according to the United Nations. The territory has been under blockade since 2007 and experienced a war that began after October 2023.