Libya Uncharted: My Charting Journey

On December 2018, I was informed by two of my Libyan journalist friends about this photography competition about Libya that was organised by a “German company” (Candid foundation and Zenith Magazine). Although I was intimidated by the requirements that included photos from Libya but the title of the competition took all my attention and raised my chances of trying to the point I believed that one month in Libya with my camera should be enough for an entry.

The fact that I live abroad does not make the connection between Libya and I any lesser. Surprisingly, the bond went stronger as when you can see it from distance, the vision field becomes wider, the nostalgia is greater per each mile away and the chances of meeting curious non-Libyans about your country must prepare you for answers. So the competition’s title (Libya  Uncharted) was the perfect one to express my feelings towards my country under it using the frozen photons I saved in my laptop from there.

It was the first round out of six, under the theme: Identity. The maximum photos a photographer can submit was 12, and that was the number of my entry’s photos! As I found many potential options in Libya’s photos folder on my device that can represent what identifies Libya or at least what Libya means to me! The aspects I have covered are not necessarily related but they all focus on important historical, cultural, artistic and social Libyan details. I tried to gather the elements from stones, buildings, going through humans portraits from different ages to animals. “Connections” or “وصلة” was the title I chose to represent my photos as a one gallery, with a main description that elaborated the idea behind the title, and I quote my last lines of it “.. In the details lies the identity, under the dust of the past lies the solution, and in linking all this, we reach.”

Colourful pebbles that I had collected from the desert of Sebha, I still keep them to this day. They remind me of the different Libyan races living on the same soil. The Libyan painting will be incomplete without its natural colors. The Earth embraces everyone, and so should those who live on it.

On February 15th 2019, I received my happiest email of the year. Despite not having the highest number of public voting but the judges had another opinion, “Connections” won the first place in the first round of the competition under the theme: Identity. The excitement was completed by the prise of visiting Berlin to attend the ending ceremony of the competition and the opening of the photo exhibition. Visiting Germany was a dream in 2013. Until it was taken from me and to cancel Goethe Institut – Düsseldorf approval admition letter that I had applied for the time I hoped to finish my studies there. However, this time I am actually going but as a photography competition winner which in a way has resuscitated the dream.

 

 

 

 

Libya, like any other country, goes through sweet and bitter times. In this photo, I wanted to express the conflict and the obstacles that prevent the Libyan flag from waving freely. The obstacles were represented over time in across the borders and civil wars.

I haven’t participated in any of the following rounds, but I checked all the entries of each and encouraged my photography enthusiast friends to give it a try. The experience of finding the fitting photos for the theme itself is fun and worth the participation. Besides it is self-rewarding once thoughts and info searching were done. The knowledge that both the participant and the viewer can gain about Libya is priceless. And that was the reason why I followed the charting journey till the last round on October 2019.

 

68 Hours in Berlin

A Turkish Airlines flight full of sleepy eyes and excited hearts, has landed on TXL airport on the 10th of December 2019 at 13:35. It vomited a Libyan photographer to step on a European ground for his first time, more excitingly that ground happened to be of the most inspiring city for him, the phoenix that rose from the ashes, Berlin.
I was welcomed by a Candid foundation employee’s smile, Ms Magdolin at the airport who took me to a cozy hotel at Turmstraße 25. The temperature of 3° Celsius was the second to say welcome (or more accurately to give a slap) on the poor Libyan’s face who have spent his last four years in a tropical-weathered winterless country. The night came early and made Brandenburg Gate light up along with the Christmas lights.
The second day and first of the program started with a visit to the Memorial of The Murdered Jews of Europe, and the museum underneath. Then we headed to the Reichstag Building where the country’s decisions are discussed, voted for and made. The inside tour was guided by Ms. Clara who works in the parliament and with her, political talks have never been more fun to listen to. The lunch was in an Italian restaurant that exuded authenticity then we rushed to Reporters Without Borders office to have our arranged meeting with Mr. Christoph Dreyer who started out with identifying the NGO and describing their principles and goals. He was more than welcome to answer a cascade of questions about freedom of press concept and ideas.

Libya Uncharted Photo Exhibition

The gallery was at Torstraße 66 while its official opening was in the evening at 18:00. It started with a welcoming, informative and inclusive word by journalis and MENA expert Mr. Mirco Keilberth, then continued to address the photos and the winners who made it to Berlin that day.

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I was no exception from the other winners to present myself and tell the stories behind my photos, right after getting encouragement from the founder of Candid Foundation and the editor in chief of Zenith magazine Mr. Daniel Gerlach to introduce myself first. Although my winning work consists of 12 photos, but only three of them were chosen to be printed out and displayed in the gallery which is open from the 10th to 20th of December 2019. The night was rich in networking and universal laughs despite the skin colour difference. The cherry on the top of that warm night was actually a Pizza at Papà Pane di Sorrento, one of the best pizzeria restaurants in Berlin.
On my last full day of the trip, we were driven to Zenith Magazine office in Berlin to conduct our video-recorded interviews. Another Berlin city tour was waiting for us, but my Libyan rebellious instinct was urging me to skip this one and go solo with my camera and Berlin. no tour guide in photography is better than getting lost.

Winners Panel Discussion

The evening was booked to have the panel discussion for the winners that was hosted by journalist Ms. Asma Labidi, to talk about our experience with photography and journalism in Libya. As well as elaborating about our ideas and what we have learnt from this win and exposure.

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The discussion ended with a question & answer session from the audience who asked important and insightful questions that triggered some critical thinking. and by the open buffet later I had to say goodbye to all the great people who were behind this amazing project that opened my eyes to a different aspects of art and journalism, hoping not to be the last.

 

Berliner Frozen Photons

Berlin Cathedral is the common name for the Evangelical Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church in Berlin, Germany. It is located on Museum Island in the Mitte borough. Construction of the current building began in 1894 and was completed in 1905.

One of the best-known landmarks of Germany, it was built on the site of a former city gate that marked the start of the road from Berlin to the town of Brandenburg an der Havel, which used to be capital of the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Is an 18th-century neoclassical monument in Berlin, built on the orders of Prussian king Frederick William II after the temporary restoration of order during the Batavian Revolution.

Under the Brandenburg gate

is a car or chariot drawn by four horses abreast (the Roman Empire’s equivalent of Ancient Greek tethrippon). It was raced in the Ancient Olympic Games and other contests. It is represented in profile as the chariot of gods and heroes on Greek vases and in bas-relief. Quadrigas were emblems of triumph; Victory or Fame often are depicted as the triumphant woman driving it. In classical mythology, the quadriga is the chariot of the gods; Apollo was depicted driving his quadriga across the heavens, delivering daylight and dispersing the night.

At the end of the street shines the statue of Victoria, the personified goddess of victory in the ancient roman religion.

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. According to Eisenman’s project text, the stelae are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason.

“The memorial evokes a graveyard for those who were unburied or thrown into unmarked pits, and several uneasily tilting stelae suggest an old, untended, or even desecrated cemetery.”

Fernsehturm Berlin (Television tower in Berlin) was intended to be both a symbol of Communist power and of the city. It remains a landmark today, visible throughout the central and some suburban districts of Berlin.[1] With its height of 368 metres (including antenna) it is the tallest structure in Germany, and the third-tallest structure in the European Union.

Reichstag building is a historic edifice in Berlin, Germany, constructed to house the Imperial Diet (German: Reichstag) of the German Empire.

The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989.

Berlin Cathedral has a long history starting as a Roman Catholic place of worship in the 15th century.

Berlin Cathedral is located on Museum Island in the Mitte borough. The current building was finished in 1905 and is a major work of Historicist architecture of the “Kaiserzeit”.

The Victory Column (German: About this soundSiegessäule (help·info), from Sieg ‘victory’ + Säule ‘column’) is a monument in Berlin, Germany. Designed by Heinrich Strack after 1864 to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War.

On the roof of Reichstag building, it was opened in 1894 and housed the Diet until 1933, when it was severely damaged after being set on fire.

On top of the Reichstag building.

The Dom is the parish church of the congregation Gemeinde der Oberpfarr- und Domkirche zu Berlin, a member of the umbrella organisation Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia. The term Dom denotes a collegiate church (equivalent to the Italian duomo, or the English “Minster”

 

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