Student of Aisha Om el Mo’minin School for Girls. School courtyard, Saida, Lebanon, 1948-49. Hashem el Madani 2007
Dimensions: image: 150 x 228 mm
Copyright: © Akram Zaatari, courtesy Hashem el Madani and Arab Image Foundation, Beirut | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: This photograph, "Student of Aisha Om el Mo’minin School for Girls. School courtyard, Saida, Lebanon, 1948-49," by Akram Zaatari, shows a young girl in a courtyard setting. It feels very posed and formal. What do you see in this piece? Curator: The taps behind the girl, repeated three times, are interesting. Water is a powerful symbol of purification and life. They also speak to communal space, public life. Consider the girl’s dress. Does it signify belonging, or perhaps constraint? Editor: Constraint, maybe? I hadn't thought about the taps as symbols. Curator: Symbols shift, gain and lose significance. The power resides in how they resonate across time. Perhaps her expression is the truest symbol here. What do you see in it? Editor: I think she looks a little defiant. I will look at everyday objects in art differently from now on!
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/zaatari-student-of-aisha-om-el-mominin-school-for-girls-school-courtyard-saida-lebanon-p79427
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“The school was headed by Nafissa Kotob, who was the aunt of my friend Sami Kotob. She would ask me to photograph the students twice a year. I would request them to bring me a chair and a table in order to articulate the space of the picture - this was especially important when more than one person was in the frame. Girls from wealthy families purchased their uniforms at the beginning of the year, whereas others would often wait until the middle of the year.” Gallery label, June 2011
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