“In search of images lost from sight,” teased the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) on Instagram ahead of the highly anticipated reveal of the latest cohort for the institution’s 11th cycle of the Arab Documentary Photography Program (ADPP). Dedicated to emerging photographers, the program provides mentorship and funding for 10 Arab documentary photography projects.

Spanning Egypt, Palestine, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan, this year’s selected works are deeply personal, political, and long-term in scope. “Drawing on the region's large-scale events in recent years, these projects delve into personal narratives as a way to make sense of history,” AFAC stated.

The ADPP 2025 jury panel includes Egyptian artist, curator, researcher, and photography educator Heba Farid; Palestinian photographer and educator Rula Halawani; and Turkish Magnum Photos member and photographer Sabiha Çimen.

The program is organized in partnership with the Prince Claus Fund and the Magnum Foundation.

Project descriptions via AFAC.

Ahmed Alaqra, Palestine

‘How to Fabricate a Memory?’

How to Fabricate a Memory? is a series of composite images that blend new and archival visuals to reconstruct memories of a past landscape that has been subjected to violence. That violence is pictured in the visual field through the use of abrupt cuts and stitched seams, which present the fragmentation and unity inherent in the act of remembrance.

Fares Zaitoon, Egypt

‘Grey is the New Green’

Fares' Grey Is The New Green juxtaposes state-led demolition of urban space in Cairo with the artist’s recovery from substance abuse to explore the intersection of memory, addiction and urban transformation. The paralleling of these themes allows the piece to explore the violent changes the city has undergone – the removal of trees to lay new urban infrastructure – and the complexities of crafting addiction-centered narratives.

Khalid Alarabi, Sudan

‘Dear Home’

Dear Home stages a visual conversation between a photographer’s own journey of displacement out of Khartoum to Qatar and archival images of the displacement that has marked Sudan in the current war. The interplay of images brings forward the material and emotional loss that characterize displacement and the search for safety, home, and belonging.

Omar Malas, Syria

‘Existential Questions in the Time of Genocide’

Existential Questions in the Time of Genocide is a mixed media installation work that stages an artist’s reflection on what it means to live through endless massacres and wars.

Hassan Kamil, Sudan

‘An Unexpected Tale From a No Longer-Forgotten City’

An Unexpected Tale From A No Longer-Forgotten City documents photographer Hassan Kamil’s journey after being driven out of his home in Khartoum due to the outbreak of the war that has come to displace over 8.2 million people to date. Offering a personal window into the wider crisis, the photographer captures his own experiences and his family’s new life in Berber over the course of 13 months of displacement.

Paul Gorra, Lebanon

‘Photo Boulos’

Photo Boulos is a pop-up photography studio set to operate in Tripoli throughout 2025. Drawing inspiration from the work of renowned Tripolitan photographers like Mohamad Orabi, Antranik Anouchian, and Agop Kouyoumjian, the project aims to offer photography services and collaborate with individuals, families, and businesses to build an extensive archive that can serve as a contemporary portrait of the city.

Roba Alfaraouna, Palestine

‘Address Not Found’

Address Not Found is a documentary project focused on Bedouin spaces and towns in the south of occupied Palestine. Motivated by the absence of photographs and local documentation, the photographer seeks to capture and preserve its stories and landscapes.

Hashim Nasr, Sudan

‘On War and Displacement’Hashim's On War and Displacement is a conceptual photography project that examines the emotional toll of the Sudanese conflict that has engulfed the country in violence since April 2023. The project is equal parts surreal and personal in its attempt to find a way to picture the extent of loss and the challenges that come with displacement and attempts to settle.

Rabab Chamseddine, Lebanon

‘But We're Nearing the Pomegranate Season’

But We're Nearing the Pomegranate Season explores individual ecological resistance during war in southern Lebanon. The project documents daily life in villages in the south as a means to present the bond between people and land expressed via agricultural traditions, care and hospitality. Challenging conventional portrayals of conflict, the project offers instead enduring connections that embody a form of resistance rooted in more than just survival.

Maryam Al Khasawneh, Jordan

‘Lowest Point on Earth’

Lowest Point on Earth is a project exploring the disappearance of a mythical body of water — the Dead Sea — believed to date back to the time of the prophet Lot. The project explores potential reasons for the disappearance of the sea and the impact its disappearance has had on the community in Ghor al-Safi as well as Jordan as a whole, a country grappling with severe water scarcity.

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