Karima Aboud the first photographer in Palestine

Source: Arabic Journal of Palestine www.palestine.assafir.com Salah Ahmed Fajuory

Translation from Arabic into English by: Fidaa Karam - TunSol

Photography allowed for a person to retain the

past, which is not offered in painting, journey texts,

or memos. And with photography especially in its

early beginnings, man has become able to travel to

any destination in the world without leaving his

place, but moving his eyesight here and there.

The camera, which was considered the wonders of inventions when it first appeared, is

somewhat a neutral machine because it’s doesn't deceive and at the same time does not

accept deletion and added.

What we see before our eyes is just the truth.

Photography almost appeared in Europe in 1839 but it took time to be in the Arab world,

unlike Palestine till the end of the eighties in the nineteenth century. It depended since its

first beginning on travelers, explorers, pilgrims and the clergy who came heavily to the holy

lands. Very important names like Bonphes and George Robertson took place in this field...

The religious prohibition, which refused photos, was one of the reasons that delayed

photography in the Arab countries. It was known that women's passports, before the British

mandate, were without photos and the responsible officer used to find it enough to mention

the woman's name in addition to her husband's name or her father's name if single…

Imaging in this sense is a manifestation of modernity, which flooded the Arab cities in the

late first quarter of the twentieth century (see: Issam Nasar, Different snapshots, Ramallah

Abedalmohsen Qattan Institution)

The first school in the Arab world to teach photography (solar) Appeared in Jerusalem, and

it was founded by Bishop Grabidian In the late fifties of the nineteenth century.

In 1865 the bishop became the patriarch of the Armenians

The most important photographers in Palestine studied on his hands, Kevork Krikorian and

Khalil Raad. It could be argued that the first Arab photographer in Palestine was Khalil Raad,

then appeared Lewis and David Sabunj, George Sabunji and Issa Alsoapene and As it is clear,

the craft of photography has been limited to the men, until a women called Karima Aboud

broke the rule , so who is Karima Aboud?

Karima was born in Bethlehem in 1894, her father Pastor Said Aboud, pastor of the

Lutheran Church in Bethlehem.

It descends from a family with roots dating back to the Lebanese town of Khiam.

She displaced this family to Nazareth in the mid-nineteenth century, some of whom were

active in evangelization.

Karima Aboud has learned the craft of photography with one of the Armenians

photographers in Jerusalem.

In 1913 she had begun the practice of the profession. Her father gave her a camera and

she began to take photos of cities, natural sites and historical landmarks, and to her

family and friends. Then opened a studio to to take photos for women in Bethlehem

That would have allowed for Conservative families to take photos for

women without embarrassment.

Then she proceeded to open an operator to color and brighten image.

In the meantime, she took different images for the five Palestinian cities: Bethlehem,

Nazareth and Tiberias, Haifa, Caesarea (there are more than 400 images of karima Abboud

exist today with one of the Israelis collectors)

The pictures have spread gradually in the homes of affluent families in Damascus

and Beirut and the Salt and Choueifat. And they have found a second collection for her, back

to the year 1913, which consists of photographs taken inside the studio for beautiful women

in their beautiful customs

Can we consider karima Aboud the first photographer in Palestine? Perhaps, but we

must also remember Najla Raad, daughter of Khalil Raad first Arabs photographer

in Palestine, who married the photographer Johannes Krikorian and she helped her husband

in his studio, and perhaps gained the profession of her father first and then developed at the

hands of her husband and between karima aboud and Najla Raad may found solid proof of

who was the first in this regard.