Palestine // Mohammed Badarne

Children from the village of Surra in the Palestinian Negev desert play on a tree. These children live in villages called unrecognized villages, which do not obtain any basic rights and are threatened with demolition. This makes the desert an outlet for freedom and safety for these children.

Mohamed Badarne is a photographer, trainer and activist. Born in the Palestinian village of Arraba in Galilee, he got involved in social activism as a teenager. He volunteered in refugee camps and built a human rights movement for Palestinian youths. In 2012, he earned his living as a high-school teacher and NGO worker. Since then – after graduating in Professional Photography – he has dedicated his career to photography and teaching photography. Mohamed leads workshops in cooperation with NGOs, community centers and independent groups. For his own photographic work he received grants from renowned art foundations, and his projects "Come Back Safely" and "Unrecognized Games" were exhibited in such diverse venues as Darat al Funun Art Gallery in Amman, the Fusion Festival, the European Center for Constuonal Rights (ECCHR) in Berlin, the International Labour Organiza on (ILO) in Geneva and the UN Headquarters in New York. His work is included in the collections of the Khalid Shuman Foundation as well as of the ILO and private art collectors. As a curator, he was responsible for .“People of the Sea”, the opening exhibit on of Qalandia International art festival in 2016.