Profiles

Following a trip to Palestine in 2003, humanitarian photographer Rich Wiles decided to document the lives of people living in refugee camps and the events unfolding in the country.

One area regularly visited by the photographer is the Aida Camp in Bethlehem, which has an estimated 4,500 residents where around half the population are children.

Rich joined the Lajee Centre, an establishment at the Aida Camp that organises cultural, social and sporting activities for children, which was set up by a group of 11 young people in April 2000.

Rich Wiles' Portrait: After Breakfast

“I was walking through the camp taking photographs and I happened to start talking to some people.” said Rich.

“I was introduced to the people who run the Lajee Centre. I went for dinner with them and we had a lot of similar ideas about the sort of things we were trying to do in Palestine.

“I had ideas at the time about finding ways to teach or to work with children in Palestine with photography and to give them the skills to tell their own stories through photographic and digital media.

“So it just all developed from there.” added Rich.

Rich has been running his photography workshops at the Lajee Centre since 2005, teaching the basics of black and white photography, including composition and light, visual storytelling, editing and image selection.

Photo taken by one of the kids during the workshop

The students are all aged between 11 and 18 and have had no photographic experience prior to the workshops.

Rich has exhibited the children’s work in a series of exhibitions titled ‘A Window to Our World’ and ‘Our World’ in both the Middle East and Europe.

“The children have a platform to voice their opinions, which they don't often get because they feel marginalised.

“They feel that they don't have a voice and that they are not getting the help and support that they deserve.”

Many of the children who have been involved with the project have been affected by the war in one way or another.

One child, Marass, who’s photograph ‘Railing Shadow’ formed part of the exhibition, had been shot whilst playing with friends in his room.

Rich Wiles' Portrait: Handing Over The Key

Alongside the children’s project, Rich Wiles has also exhibited his own body of work titled ‘Portraits of Palestine’, which is a series of black and white photographs taken at various refugee camps.

The exhibition toured across Palestine and the UK. He has also exhibited in Australia and Europe as part of a group show.

Working as a volunteer at the Lajee Centre, Rich spends six months of the year in Palestine.

He is currently planning a cultural exchange trip to bring a group of children from the Aida Camp over to the UK in May 2008, as part of the story-telling workshop programme.

A book of Rich’s experience in Palestine and a series of short stories on life inside a refugee camp are also in the pipeline, which the photographer is hoping to launch in March 2008.

For more information on the Lajee Centre visit their website: