Atiq Rahimi, 'On the threshold of time (Au seuil du temps)', from the series 'The Imaginary Return (Le retour imaginaire)'

Atiq Rahimi
Born Kabul, Afghanistan, 1962. Lives Paris, France
'On the threshold of time (Au seuil du temps)', from the series 'The Imaginary Return (Le retour imaginaire)'
2002
Gelatin silver print
Museum no. E.967-2010
Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum

Atiq Rahimi is a writer, film director and photographer who fled Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion in 1984, seeking political refuge in France, where he is now based. He returned to Afghanistan in 2002, after the fall of the Taliban. Confronted by the ruins of Kabul, he decided not to photograph the city with his digital camera. Instead he chose a primitive box camera normally used to take identity portraits in the streets of Kabul. The unpredictable process resulted in dreamlike photographs. They convey the nostalgia and brutal feelings of loss that Rahimi experienced when revisiting the war-wounded city.

John Jurayj, 'Untitled (Large Embassy with Red Mirror #1)'

John Jurayj
Born Evanston, Illinois, USA, 1968. Lives New York, USA
'Untitled (Large Embassy with Red Mirror #1)'
2007
Inkjet print on watercolour paper, with burn holes and mirrored Plexiglas
British Museum: 2009, 6032.1
Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum

Using a variety of media, including painting, print-making, sculpture and video, John Jurayj explores the impact of the Lebanese civil war (1975-90), as both a world conflict and an identity trauma. He often re-works photographs of Lebanon from family albums, press archives and online databases. Here he translates the brutality of war into an attack on the photograph itself. He enlarges to near abstraction a news photograph of the bombed US embassy in Beirut in 1984. The image is further disrupted by the holes burnt into the paper. The holes are then filled in with red, mirrored Plexiglas.

Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, 'Wonder Beirut #13, Modern Beirut, International Centre of Water-skiing', from the series 'Wonder Beirut: The Story of a Pyromaniac Photographer'

Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige
Both born Beirut, Lebanon, 1969. Live Beirut and Paris, France
'Wonder Beirut #13, Modern Beirut, International Centre of Water-skiing', from the series 'Wonder Beirut: The Story of a Pyromaniac Photographer'
1997–2006
C-print mounted on aluminium with face mounting
Museum no. E.1124-2012
Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum
Courtesy of the artists and CRG Gallery, New York and In Situ / Fabienne Leclerc, Paris

Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige collaborate as filmmakers and artists, producing cinematic and visual art work that intertwine. In the series 'Wonder Beirut' they use photography to blur fact and fiction. The artists noticed that tourist postcards of pre-civil war Beirut were still for sale after the war ended in 1990. They invented a fictional photographer named Abdallah Farrah who, in 1968, was commissioned by the tourist board to make postcard views of Beirut’s attractions. When the civil war broke out in 1975, he began to burn his negatives to reflect the surrounding destruction. The artists present these works as prints from the fictional photographer’s damaged negatives.

Jowhara AlSaud, 'Airmail', from the series 'Out of Line'

Jowhara AlSaud
Born Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 1978. Lives Jeddah and New York, USA
'Airmail', from the series 'Out of Line'
2008
C-print
Museum no. E.948-2010
Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum

Jowhara AlSaud's photographs explore the language of censorship and the malleability of photography. AlSaud scratches the outlines of figures from her personal photographs into photographic negatives, which she then prints. By reducing the figures to line drawings she renders them anonymous. The embracing figures hint at farewells and longing. The envelopes suggest thwarted attempts at communication. AlSaud's hybrid technique of drawing and photography critiques the censorship of visual communication in Saudi Arabia.

Taraneh Hemami, 'Most Wanted'

Taraneh Hemami
Born Tehran, Iran, 1960. Lives San Francisco, USA
'Most Wanted'
2006
Hand-manipulated pigment print
British Museum: 2009, 6030.1
Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum

Taraneh Hemami explores issues of cultural identity, preservation and representation, specifically among the Iranian/Iranian-American diaspora community. She often starts with personal or communal archival material and remakes it in a variety of media, while drawing attention to the crafting of images for propaganda purposes.

This work is based on mugshots downloaded from a US government website shortly after 9/11. Hemami digitally manipulates the faces to such an extent that any identifying features of the individuals are blurred away. She further defaces the images by scratching into the surface of the print. The sparse visual information that remains, such as headscarves, suggests western stereotypes of Muslims.

Sadegh Tirafkan, 'Human Tapestry'

Sadegh Tirafkan
Born Karbala, Iraq, 1965. Lives Tehran, Iran
'Human Tapestry'
2009
Digital c-print
British Museum: 2011, 6033.1
Maryam and Edward Eisler collection of Iranian Art at the British Museum

Sadegh Tirafkan draws on historical Iranian imagery to investigate issues of identity, gender and culture. Tirafkan often incorporates self-portraiture into his work, which has the role of the male in traditional Iranian culture as one of its main themes. Here, hundreds of individual portraits make up this digital Persian carpet, which the artist intends as a comment on population growth in Iran. The photographs no longer function as individual likenesses. They are treated as raw material, like the tiles of a mosaic or the scraps of fabric that make up a patchwork quilt. Tirafkan defies the specificity of the people pictured and uses them to form abstract patterns.

Camille Zakharia, 'Markings II'

Camille Zakharia
Born Tripoli, Lebanon, 1962. Lives Manama, Bahrain
'Markings II'
2008
Inkjet print on rag paper
Museum no. E.671-2011

Using photography, photomontage, collage, painting and print, Camille Zakharia makes work about identity and displacement, reflecting his own life journey and his interest as a trained engineer in architecture and the urban landscape.

In this work Zakharia digitally manipulates his source material until it is nearly illegible. He creates an abstract geometric form that is reminiscent of the patterns on Islamic tiles. The shape was made by repeating and rotating a photograph of a line of paint on asphalt. He explains, 'Through the use of montage, I have rebelled against the photo medium itself, challenging its reputation to represent reality as it is. I have liberated myself from the traditional photo process.'

Amirali Ghasemi, from the series 'Party'

Amirali Ghasemi
Born Tehran, Iran, 1980. Lives Tehran
From the series 'Party'
2005
Digital c-print
Museum no. E.355-2010
Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum

Amirali Ghasemi studied Graphic Design at Azad University, Tehran and in 1998 founded Parkingallery, an independent project space, art collective and graphic design studio. In 2002 he launched Parkingallery.com, an online platform for Iranian artists.

In the series 'Party', Ghasemi alters what look like ordinary, spontaneous snapshots by blocking out exposed areas of flesh. By pre-emptively censoring his own images, he protects the identity of individuals photographed at unsanctioned private parties. The work evokes the censorship of imported magazines in Iran, where skirts are lengthened and women’s bodies are covered with strokes of black marker.

Şükran Moral, 'Despair'

Şükran Moral
Born Terme, Turkey, 1962. Lives Rome, Italy, and Istanbul, Turkey
'Despair'
2003
Digital c-print
British Museum: 2010, 6032.1
Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum

Şükran Moral works in photography, sculpture, video and performance, creating bold and often controversial works that critique society and its institutions. Violence against women is a major theme. She has also made work about other groups who lack societal power, including the mentally ill, children, immigrants and prostitutes.

In this image, brightly-coloured birds, what Moral calls 'digital nightingales', perch on a group of migrant workers huddled in a boat. According to the artist, in Turkish literature nightingales are a symbol of hope, love and separation. The men and boys are shown in black-and-white, at the mercy of their situation. The birds, however, are free to fly away.

Nermine Hammam, 'Armed Innocence II', from the series 'Upekkha'

Nermine Hammam
Born Cairo, Egypt, 1967. Lives Cairo
'Armed Innocence II', from the series 'Upekkha'
2011
Archival inkjet print
Museum no. E.1131-2012
Art Fund Collection of Middle Eastern Photography at the V&A and the British Museum

Influenced by a background in film and graphic design, Nermine Hammam works in series, making prints that combine elements of painting and photography, often digitally manipulating and layering images to represent subjects in states of abandonment or altered consciousness. When the army was called in to respond to the protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in January 2011, Hammam was struck by the vulnerability of the soldiers. They seemed to want to be anywhere but there. In the 'Uppekkha' series she transports these soldiers into vibrant fantasy settings. Reminiscent of postcards, the series likens the events of Tahrir Square to a tourist attraction that drew the world's attention, but was not fully understood.