Light from the Middle East

A new exhibition has opened in London that sets out to remedy the under-representation of Middle Eastern photography in UK collections. Light from the Middle East: New Photography features more than 90 works by some of the most exciting artists from the region. This is an intriguing exhibition that reveals the creative responses to the social challenges and political upheavals that have shaped the Middle East over the past 20 years. The photographs present multiple viewpoints of a region where collisions between personal, social, religious and political life can be emotive and complex.

Highlights include work by Abbas and Shadi Ghadirian from Iran, Youssef Nabil from Egypt, Walid Raad from Lebanon and Taysir Batniji from Palestine.

‘In the past few years contemporary photographic practice from and about the Middle East has been some of the most exciting, innovative and varied art anywhere in the world,’ says curator Marta Weiss. ‘The exhibition celebrates the creative and sophisticated ways that contemporary artists use photography to respond to the complexities of the Middle East.’

In development since 2009, the exhibition is a collaboration between the British Museum and the V&A and supported by the Art Fund.

Light from the Middle East: New Photography is on at V&A in London from 13 November 2012 – 7 April 2013