GAZA: Legacy of Occupation: A Photographer's Journey

by Dick Doughty, Mohammed El Aydi

Dick Doughty gained intimate access within the Gaza Strip through his Palestinian host and guide, Mohammed El Aydi. In this personal story and photo essay, Doughty goes beyond stereotypes and provides vivid insights into how Gazans themselves view their lives. In offering a dramatic portrait of one people’s struggle, Gaza casts a compassionate light on today’s ethnic conflicts.

232 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1995

Reviews

[Colby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book while at MTSU for a Visual Anthropology class. I really liked the class and this book was a great supplement. I didn't really know too much about the onging strifes in the Gaza strip. This book really opened my eyes to a lot of things I never knew really happened there. It gave some good background history in how the Gaza Strip came to be and the displacement of the groups of peopel from concenration camps. Then it brings you up to speed on the current state of affairs there and between the borders. Great imagery as well.

[KOOPIE · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having found this book at a charity store, it felt like the best companion book to read after Susan Sontag's 'Regarding the Pain of Others' paired with 'The Bang Bang Club (2010), and it didn't disappoint. (Both the media mentioned tackle similar themes and topics.)

The book follows Dick Doughty, a photo journalist who, with the help of Mohammed Al Aydi, empathetically draws context towards the struggle of the Gazans repatriation from Canada Camp before the establishment of the Palestine Liberation Organization's authority in Gaza. The essence of the book best materializes in the sentence:

"News from the Gaza strip shows poverty or violence, one or the other, and preferably these days, Muslim "fundamentalist" violence, nearly all the time. This defines Gaza, this is the Gaza in the Western mind. But such a definition is a product of how one looks at the world. What do I see through my Camera if I acknowledge that Gazans are, first, my human equals and, then, never just photographic 'subjects' but 'participants' in creating this story? What do I see if I assume Canada Camp and all of Gaza is indeed as complex a society as any other? The plains of life, the mundane, the routine and the trivial do not deny the more spectacular events that make the headlines. They put the headlines into a context. Make them real again." -Dick Doughty, Gaza: Legacy of Occupation

And this is exactly what Doughty does. He humanizes the subjects with anecdotes of their daily lives. He shares in their struggles and griefs, their celebration of ramadan and the visiting of martyr's funerals. He clarifies to his readers the different types of Jihad. He even comes across an old man who, finding out he is American, swears at America to his face, then proceeds to become the centre of attention with the people through his uninhibited obscene humor. Doughty instead of writing this man off as a looney, is told that this man is their resident clown with whom they have fun and laugh, something that is precious to hold onto in times of oppression.

In this manner, Doughty delicately tackles the topic and navigates himself around the people. This is further exemplified when, Doughty goes to meet a man who was shot. Upon entering the room and realizing he might take away the attention of the visitors from the wounded man to himself by interviewing him, he decides to simply be present for support rather than an interview.

Furthermore, the internal and external conflicts Doughty is presented throughout his trip are extremely intriguing. From the contrast he feels after spending alot of time with the Gazan families and then going into Jerusalem, to the fact that he may be viewed as a threat by the Israeli's if they mistaken his camera for a gun and by the Palestinians for an Israeli spy, to the fact that his own country, America, provides support to Israel while he is shown cradling a Palestinian child to sleep while there is unrest, all provide for extremely compelling moments.

By the end of the book you are provided with new context of the lives of the Palestinians and an appreciation for the writer himself as he interchangeably wears the hat of a human and photo journalist (dare I say, he proves they can be one and the same) to share the story and photos of the Gazans.

My biggest complaint about the book has to be that, after reading it, I could find nothing about Dick Doughty's other work on the internet and was left wondering what happened to a respectable man like him and what his progress is on this topic.