FATMA HASSONA ファトマ・ハッスーナ

“I am looking for life, in the middle of this death and destruction,” Fatma Hassona told me one day, in one of the numerous messages that we exchanged during the year that we spent with each other, from afar. She, blocked in her native Gaza, under the Israeli bombs, and I, travelling around the world, trying to be there as much as possible, whenever she had some connection.

Rarely have I seen someone evolving in such a limited perimeter, acting with so much agency. Rarely have photos taken with so many limitations transpired this much freedom.

Hassona’s gaze on the destruction of Gaza is implacable. No sensationalism. No voyeurism. Frontal wide shots that show the extent and the intent of destruction, make her photography such an essential comment on the act of genocide. And yet, the gentleness of her eye redeems the stolen dignity of the Gazan population, showing proud people, even when they have nothing left.
Hence, a patch of colour, amid vast layers of shattered concrete becomes the proof of a never ending humanity.

“They cannot defeat us,” she told me, the first day we met. And seeing my puzzled face she continued:“They cannot defeat us, because we have nothing to lose.”

Fatma Hassona's nickname was ‘The eye of Gaza’. She had just turned 25 when she got killed in a targeted attack by the IDF, along with six of her family members. Her legacy, though quite compact, will remain an indelible proof of the existence of the Palestinian people.

Text by Sepideh Farsi