Besieged: Portraits of a People Under Blockade

This project reveals the fraught but resilient inner psyche of people, young and old, living in Gaza under the harsh conditions of a blockade imposed on the territory since 2006 by the State of Israel. Owing to this siege, the Gaza Strip has become one of the world's most impoverished places. Many have described it as the world's largest open-air prison. The photos in this series are from three trips to Gaza in 2006, 2014, and 2017. In 2006, I was in Gaza during the beginning of an Israeli assault known as Operation Summer Rain. In 2014, I came to the Gaza Strip one week after the end of "Operation Protective Edge" when the people of Gaza suffered 2241 fatalities as a result of aerial bombardment and a ground invasion by Israel. The third trip occurred in 2017 at a time when Palestine and Israel were again in the throes of conflict over conditions of worship at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The images in this series reflect photographic traditions of street photography, portraiture and photojournalism. These photos remind us of the humanity and human tragedy that we are witnessing at this very moment in the Gaza Strip.