Karimeh Abbud

Karimeh Abbud (Arabic كريمة عبود ) (* 1896 in Shefa - 'Amr, † 1955 in Nazareth ), also known as " Lady Photographer ", was one of the first professional women photographers in the first half of the 20th century in Lebanon, Palestine and Israel lived and worked.

Life and work

Karimeh Abbud was born in Shefa - 'Amr, the family but moved in 1899 to Beit Jala, where her father worked as a Protestant minister. 1905 the family moved on to Bethlehem.

1913 Karimeh Abbuds began an interest in photography after they had been given by her father to her 17th birthday a camera. Your first pictures show family, friends and the landscapes around Bethlehem. Their first known signed photo today dates back to 1919 and documented their degree of professionalization and the self-understanding as a photographer.

Karimeh Abbud studied Arabic literature at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. During this time, she made trips to Baalbek to photograph archaeological sites.

In the 1930s, its reputation grew as a professional photographer, especially in Nazareth, where Abbud family was known. In her photo studio she made portraits of women and children, but there was also a great demand for photos of weddings and other celebrations. In addition, she made time and again cityscapes of Bethlehem, Tiberias, Haifa and Nazareth. Her work henceforth signed in English and Arabic with the words: " Karimeh Abbud - Lady Photographer - ريمة عبود: مصورة شمس ". From the mid- 1930s, she put her hand-colored studio photographs.

When her mother died in 1940, Karimeh Abbud took to leave this as an opportunity, Nazareth and first to go to Jerusalem and Bethlehem. In a letter to her cousins ​​from the year 1941, she expressed the desire to realize a printed album of her photographic work.

Little is known about their whereabouts and their lives during the First Arab-Israeli War. After the death of her father in 1949 Karimeh Abbud returned to Nazareth, where she died in 1955.

Discount

The originals of their extensive works were collected by Ahmed Mrowat, director of the Nazareth Archives Project. In 2006 discovered an Israeli antiquities collector over 400 original prints Abbuds in a house in Jerusalem's Qatamon, which had been abandoned by its owners in 1948. Probably lived Karimeh Abbud 1930-1948 there. Mrowat has his collection with the purchase of these photos, many of which are hand signed by the artist expanded.

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