MARYAM AK - PHOTOGRAPHER/RESEARCHER
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The project - a comissioned work, entails organizing and digitizing the Giritli Bilal Usta collection currently held at the IRCICA Library. The collection is one of many undigitized photo collections held by IRCICA and is made up of about 322 photos and documents taken during the 1910’s and 1920’s in parts of Bilad al-Sham, mainly in Jerusalem but also Iran, Aleppo and Ankara.It documents the life and works of a former Cretan, Ottoman state employee, and member of the Ittihat ve Terakki ( Committee of Union and Progress), Who was part of Mimar Kemaluddin’s architectural team that worked on restoring the Dome of the Rock (Qubbat al-Sakhra) between 1922-1927
The project entails the digitization and cataloguing of the archives of Jad Iseid, A senior member of the Druze comunity of JOrdan, whose photo collection documents the transformation of the Azraq Water Reserve, which is located in the Eastern Jordanian desert. The collection also highlights the social life of the Druze, the desert landscape - an important stop for migratory birds and other endangered animals, and the relationship between the community and the land. The project will be presented in a digitial format as part of a broader project to study and document the region of al-Azraq and questions relating to water management in the area.