Fables of the Sea (2015–2023)

Fables of the Sea is a long-term photographic and research-based project that navigates Gaza’s fractured relationship with its only remaining open space—the sea. Once known for its fertile lands and flower exports, northern Gaza was devastated during the 2008 war. Entire ecosystems were destroyed, leaving the earth barren and its renewal impossible. With the land lost, the sea became Gaza’s last horizon—a space of fragile freedom, where daily life unfolds under threat.

This project began as an observation of the fishermen’s routines and evolved into a deeper exploration of survival, ecology, and memory. The sea, though heavily surveilled, polluted, and militarized, remains a site of resistance and ritual. Through portraits of fishermen, black water self-portraits, and images of people swimming in contaminated waves, I document how the sea absorbs both human presence and absence.

The project also includes objects the water returns—rusted tools, broken shoes, bottles of red pepper and olive oil—each carrying a fragment of a forgotten narrative. These are not just remnants; they are witnesses.

Fables of the Sea is not merely a documentary account. It is a visual fable of a coastline shaped by occupation, blockade, and ecological decline—yet still inhabited, still dreamed upon. The sea becomes an archive, a metaphor, and a mirror: of longing, of memory, and of the human capacity to endure.