Amidst the War, Find Music on the West Bank
Hidden within Palestine’s contested West Bank, one man brings joy through music to the local people.
Takeaways
- Hidden within Palestine's contested West Bank, one man brings joy through music to the local people.
- Six photos illuminate a brighter side of the conflict-torn West Bank in Palestine.
- Despite the shadow of conflict with Israel, one man continues to ply his trade as a violin craftsman.
David Brunetti is a London-based photographer. His work centers on issues affecting identity in conflict and post-conflict situations.
His current project, “Looking for Palestine”, aims to challenge prevailing perceptions of Palestinians as either victims or perpetrators of the occupation of their land.
Shehada Shalalda is a violin maker in Ramallah, a town in Palestine’s West Bank area. Originally a student of the instrument at the city’s Al Kamandjati music school, after attending a class by a visiting violin maker he found himself becoming more interested in how violins were made and repaired than in playing them.
After shadowing several other violin makers who visited the school, he was invited to join a workshop in Italy and then went to study violin-making and repair in the United Kingdom. He gave the first violin he made in Italy to his younger sister, Ala, who has been learning the instrument ever since.
Today, Shehada works full-time making violins for students at Al Kamandjati, working from a workshop in his home beside the school.
Text and photographs by David Brunetti
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