Palestine in the National Portrait Gallery
Please read these words from Emily Hawkins - Putting a Keffiyeh in the National Portrait Gallery
Please visit the exhibition and tell them what it means to you and vote in the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize 2024 here
The collection this piece is from was born in desperation. In the first days of the November 2023 I was pysically and mentally demobilised by the scenes being live streamed by the heroic people of Gaza, who were dying to showing us what was happening.
The only place I could find truth, action, care and hope was in the streets. I managed to get out to some local protests where we marched, cried and shouted together. On November 18th 2023, a year ago today, I went to a family vigil organised by @welshwomen4gaza Someone there said ‘If you feel hopeless right now and don’t know what to do just do what you normally do and include Gaza in it.’ It was these words and this moment that gave me the idea as a storyteller to create a collection of portraits of local community members who were sacrificing their time to shine light on Gaza and bringing the community together to do the same.
I went to local photographer @laurie_broughton whose work I had seen through @welshballroomcommunity and asked if he’d like to collaborate by taking the portraits. I then spent the following months connecting with the different community members, making mood boards, going to charity shops to find fabric and arranging times and locations for the sittings.
Nelly aka Queen Niche, 2024
from the series The Welsh Voice
by Laurie Broughton
© Laurie Broughton
For one of the portraits featuring a keffiyeh to now be in a colonial institution is a huge win for us all. The gallery had said they had some push back about including the work so if you please if you’re in the area go and see the exhibition and tell them how much it means to you. Hopefully the door can then be fully opened for Palestinian Artists to be included in these spaces to tell their own stories.
Thanks to @nelly_queenniche and everyone else featuring in the project for continuously and collectively lifting us up. I am so inspired by you. This is for Palestine and for our brilliant community in South Wales that has come out consistently and relentlessly over the past year. We are here, we won't be silenced. Free Palestine.
Please visit the exhibition and tell them what it means to you and vote in the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize 2024 here
