La Palestine photographiée par Joss Dray

Exhibition at the IMA Library: a testimony of Palestinian daily life, its faces, places and memory, through a selection of photographs, many of them unpublished, drawn from several photo reports by Joss Dray dating from 1987 to 2001.

The exhibition is organized as part of the European Heritage Days 2026 and in honor of the IMA Library’s new name, renamed the Leïla Shahid Library, after the voice of Palestine in France and Europe, who died in February.

In 2001, Joss Dray was commissioned by the IMA to undertake a photographic report in Palestine. Through her photographs, she documents the daily life of Palestinians, whether they live in the Palestinian territories, in refugee camps, or within the diaspora. Her work notably traverses the Jabalia, Shati, Kalandia, Dheisheh, Jenin camps, as well as several camps in Lebanon.

For this selection, the photographer added older photographs taken between 1987 and 1995. One can see the Khan Younis refugee camp over time, the Rafah border after the Gaza–Jericho agreement, daily life, the markets of Gaza City and the coastline, children’s demonstrations during the first Intifada, as well as streets covered with graffiti after the Oslo Accords.

Joss Dray
French photographer, Joss Dray began in 1987 to document the daily life and forms of resistance of the Palestinian people. Her work has been the subject of exhibitions and publications, including Revenir à Jenin. A Living History of the Refugee Camp (1989–2018), published in 2020 and prefaced by Leïla Shahid.