Adam Rouhana

Before Freedom

I took these photographs over the past three years across historic Palestine—in Jerusalem, Jericho, Haifa, Hebron, and Bethlehem—because I want to show folks what life looks like in a place so often talked about but rarely truly seen. The Israeli settler-colonial narrative, which is embedded in American discourse, attempts to erase and dehumanize Palestinian identity. My photography works in opposition to that force of erasure by creating a contemporary representation of the Palestinian people—one that embodies an active ethic of self-determination.