Aisha

The radical picture editing in this heavy, medium-format softcover photo book results in 320 full-page colour images effectively telling their own story. The Yemeni-Egyptian-American photographer and film-maker behind the book, who studied in Zurich, travelled through remote regions of North Africa photographing older women with ornamental face tattoos. All of the women are depicted multiple times in repetitive series of images, interrupted by equally repetitive images of their homes and of the evocative, oftentimes stark landscapes. The images appear to be ordered chronologically through the photographer’s journey, and the absence of captions or commentary produces an unmediated documentary record largely free of selection or interpretation but that through repetition establishes a reserved connection. Some background information is provided on five slim inserts on translucent paper, printed in Arabic (mostly at the top of the page) and English (usually at the bottom). The photographer explains, for example, how she was inspired by her great-grandmother’s tattoos to discover more about these facial decorations, which are a form of code often used by illiterate women. In light of such silent communication, the very direct presentation of the photographs can be read as the postcolonial gaze for once refraining from any attempt at interpretation, and exposing itself through its very randomness in much the same way as the portrait subjects do. All of the decisions, from the choice of paper to the handling of the bilingual content and the careful typography, support the photographs. The cover image is an old photograph of the great-grandmother who was the catalyst for the trip, but it was not taken by the photographer herself – another radical decision.

Editor
Stephanie Rebonati, New York (US)

Author
Yumna Al-Arashi, Zürich (CH)

Design
Yumna Al-Arashi, Naima Schalcher, Zürich (CH)

Printing
Mega Print/Mega Basım, Istanbul (TR)

Publisher
Edition Patrick Frey, Zürich (CH)

ISBN
978-3-907236-68-0