Steve Sabella

Early career

During his life in Jerusalem, Sabella worked as both an artist and professional art photographer. As an official photographer for UNDP, UNICEF and many other organizations, he was one of the very few photographers with complete access to the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza Strip during the Second Intifada which drastically limited Palestinians mobility. In response to the negative media representation of Palestine and Palestinians, he focused on capturing images that reflected the nuanced reality of daily life there. Pillars Magazine listed Sabella as one of the most established brands in Palestine in a list of the top ten for 2005.

Sabella left Palestine in 2007 and established the Palestine Photo Bank with the mission of promoting and supporting a positive image of Palestine and its people. As he states, "The world is accustomed to seeing Palestine in a negative light; as victims, impoverished, and in a constant state of turmoil - something that has been imbued by the media over the decades. This is not to claim that occupation does not exist or that conditions are not hard for Palestine, but is just one way to give the Palestinian image justice. There is more to Palestine than what is currently portrayed. This is one way to counter the negative construction of the image of Palestine and Palestinians."

In 2007 Sabella moved to London and from that point onwards focused solely on his art career. In 2010 he moved to Berlin where he is currently based.

Education

2008 - 2009 MA in Art Business, Sotheby's Institute of Art, London, UK

2007 - 2008 MA in Photographic Studies, University of Westminster, London, UK

2005 - 2007 BA in Visual Arts, State University of New York, USA

1994 - 1997 Art Photography, Musrara - The Naggar School of Photography, Media & New Music, Jerusalem

Awards

2017 Eric Hoffer Award memoir gold prize for The Parachute Paradox

2017 Nautilus Book Award memoir gold prize for The Parachute Paradox

2017 The International Book Awards finalist for The Parachute Paradox

2009 Saïd Foundation Scholarship for MA in Art Business from Sotheby's Institute of Art

2008 Ellen Auerbach Award - Akademie der Künste in Berlin

2008 Independent Photographers Terry O'Neil Award (shortlisted and exhibited)

2008 Caparo Award of Distinction for MA in Photographic Studies from University of Westminster

2008 Chevening Scholarship for MA in Photographic Studies from University of Westminster

2002 Young Artist of the Year Award - A. M. Qattan Foundation in Palestine

Steve Sabella - Photography 1997-2014

The first monograph of the artist's work Steve Sabella - Photography 1997-2014 was published by Hatje Cantz in collaboration with the Akademie der Künste in Berlin in 2014. It is authored by Hubertus von Amelunxen and the foreword is written by Kamal Boullata. Hatje Cantz states the book, "reads time and history out of the photographs and thus describes the genesis of Sabella’s photographic oeuvre under the aspects of exile, identity, migration, and the divided topologies of the 21st century." It was reviewed in Prefix Photo, Canvas Magazine, Art Radar, the Journal of Palestine Studies, the Electronic Intifada, and This Week in Palestine.

The Parachute Paradox

Published in a limited edition of 1250 by Kerber Verlag in 2016. Kerber Verlag describes the book with the following: "The Parachute Paradox tells the life story of artist Steve Sabella (*1975), who was born in Jerusalem’s Old City and raised under Israeli occupation. After living through both intifadas, being kidnapped in Gaza, and learning to navigate Palestinian and Israeli culture, he feels in exile at home. For him, the occupation attaches each Palestinian to an Israeli, as if in a tandem jump. The Israeli is always in control, placing the Palestinian under threat in a never-ending hostage situation. He realizes he has two options: either surrender or unbuckle his harness. Blurring fact and fiction, love and loss, the memoir traces one man’s arduous search for liberation from within, through a confrontation with his colonized imagination."

Exhibitions

Sabella has exhibited internationally including at The Bumiller Collection in Berlin (2017), the 1st Biennial of Arab Photography at The Arab World Institute (IMA) & the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris (2015), Nel Mezzo del Mezzo at the Museo Riso in Palermo (2015), FotoFest Biennial (2014), International Center for Photography Scavi Scalier (2014), Contemporary Art Platform (CAP) Kuwait (2014), Bahrain National Museum (2010), Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art (2009), Ars Aevi Museum of Contemporary Art (2007), and Barjeel Art Foundation (2010, 2015).

Art talks & presentations

Sabella has given talks at Museum of Fine Arts Houston, The Photographers' Gallery, The British Museum, Akademie der Künste, University of Cambridge, University of Turin, School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS, University of East London, Accademia Albertina, Contemporary Art Platform (CAP) Kuwait, and the University of Rostock.

TEDx

Sabella's TEDx Marrakech talk in September 2012 titled Dare to Question my Name or Where I Come From discussed his journey from a state of exile to liberation in conjunction with the concept of image construction and the influence images have on self perception. Martin Rose, Director of the British Council in Rabat wrote, "Steve Sabella was intriguing, refusing to be defined by his origins but constantly playing with them – his relationship with those origins and, perhaps above all, with the deductions and assumptions that people make about him from their partial and filtered knowledge of those origins. A Christian from Jerusalem, he declined to wear labels, is of Palestine without being Palestinian, of Jerusalem without reference to East or West. His art is a fractured photography of exile and reintegration, a beguiling exploration of an identity he obstinately refuses to acknowledge except on his own terms. His ability to play light-heartedly but in deadly earnest with others' perceptions of himself is both delightful and tragic – he called one instance of it, the Israeli inability to see him as Palestinian because he did not conform to stereotype, as 'the Dead See'."

Work philosophy

Sabella utilizes large scale photography, photographic collage, and mixed media in his work. He has stated that he thinks of his work as a form of visual research into the genealogy of the image. While many of his works have been created in response to life events, he maintains that the viewer's understanding of his work is also a part of it.

As he stated, "Because pictures create their own consciousness of the world, I wonder if the time has come to stop focusing on the connection between images and the 'real world.' Maybe we need to explore the visual components of the world by looking into the image itself—just like in scientific research. We need to study images, the connections between them, their characteristics, and especially their origins by looking at them directly and not in constant comparison with reality. This may allow us to discover the infinite possibilities that are hidden in images. My relationship with the image is like being on a space odyssey, in search of understanding image formation. And since an image is part of the imagination, unlocking the code will allow us to see beyond our own reality. Maybe we have entered an era where images can be unfixed, bound no longer to paper or screen, liberated from time, floating freely in our imaginations."

Identity

"To introduce Steve Sabella as definitively Palestinian or definitively Arab would be to overlook this exceptional artist's life quest of questioning one's given identity, what identity is in essence, its relationship to the image, and how one can transform and integrate a given identity into a state of active self-construction. Steve Sabella's work represents an individual consciousness seeking to understand its meaning and role in the world, and to take charge of the image, where our understanding of the world perhaps resides."

Exile, the Palestinian experience & the colonization of the imagination

Critics of Sabella's work often note the prominence of exile and the Palestinian experience in his work.

In 2014 Sabella stated, "All we need is the imagination to find who we are and what we are searching for. It is the responsibility of the individual to stand up and free him or herself from the new form of colonization that people are affected by yet are unaware of, the colonization of the imagination. Palestinians do not need the UN, the EU, the United States or any other country in the world, and especially not Israel, to declare to them that they are free. We are all born free. Every Palestinian should wake up today and say –– I am a free person."

"Steve Sabella is a Palestinian, born in Jerusalem in 1975 … Although he still has the privilege of being able to return, he chose exile, and art teaches him to grasp exile in its distorting and destructive consequences, which leads to an existence that is marked by a driven search and borders on disintegration. His art is an art of understanding; it is poetic and suppresses neither expulsion nor salvation. It keeps to the path and forms a bridge — it is the bridge."

Family

His daughter Cecile is featured in several artworks and predominantly in Cécile Elise Sabella (2008). Hubertus von Amelunxen reviewed it with, "The fabric is like a second skin taken from the daughter and photographed inside and out, the in-between lying between world and body, offering protection, clothing, and exposing the person like the skin between the world and the self. The book is ambivalent in several ways, cruel and tender, disjointed and layered, linking and rupturing. It is body and place of the absent body; it is mutilation and vacuum, torture and homage. It is an intermediate space, a membrane; it forms intermediate spaces and creates places in the loss of the immediate. It is about originality and reproduction, birth and alienation, longing and despair. It literally embodies a distance, away from the place of birth,Jerusalem, away from the body. Then there is the language: "I gave birth to something alien to me." Written and erased to the point of recognizability."

"A tender and apologetic declaration of love from the artist to his young daughter, portrays pairs of square-cuts from the child's colorful clothes. Conceived as an artist's book, these images deal with duality, but they also mirror the essential connection between a father and a daughter, two exiles born in Jerusalem, two tailored from the same cloth."

Transformation

Sabella has spoken about how his artworks have mirrored his evolving states of mind. The titles of his work such as Exit (2006), In Exile (2008), In Transition (2010), Euphoria (2010), Beyond Euphoria (2011), Metamorphosis (2012) and Independence (2013) point to themes of growth and change.

"...These contorted passageways through his own psyche led the artist to the roots of his wounds and gave him an inkling of the possibility of healing. While the destructiveness of being uprooted was at the center of In Exile, Sabella's newest works move, release and liberation into the foreground. Euphoria (2010) alludes to the blissful feeling of being freed of mental fetters. This feeling – possibly short-lived, as the artist himself concedes – is expressed in playful-seeming, uprooted trees..."

"From 1997 on, the images, series and projects of Steve Sabella are periscopes drowned in the invisible of human condition, the uncanny and the search for a meaning; an "exile" that starts as physical and contingent and ends becoming mental, a category of the soul that needs an answer, or a series of answers from each one of us; answers that change – evolve during a lifetime. Sabella raised the horizon to his own eye level: From a contingent one to a universal one, escaping every rhetoric, though not losing his identity as an artist, but on the contrary, conquering it."

Fragment / Layer

The fragment is a visual and conceptual device used in numerous works by Sabella. In 38 Days of Re-collection (2014) images are printed onto pieces of paint peeled from walls in the Old City of Jerusalem, and in Till the End (2004) images are printed on stones collected in Jerusalem. The collage works of In Exile (2008) and Metamorphosis (2012) are composed of cut and fragmented images.

"The art of Steve Sabella, his photographic works, seemed to me like a border crossing, a "tightrope walk," so to speak, pictures that have touched a boundary to a decision, that from cycle to cycle have cleared away boundaries anew by overcoming them, have posited and carved out places—territorially, topologically, formally, aesthetically. Places are incisions; they interrupt, classify, divide, and rhythmically compose the spaces of viewing, and they separate one place from another."

"Every trace left by the artist is thus a fragment of history stuck in the present, an instant which sums up the premises for the future."

Counterpoint and musicality

Hubertus von Amelunxen noted the aesthetic relationship Sabella's work has to the musical concept of counterpoint. Referring specifically to Sinopia (2014) he said, "The city, photographed at dawn and during the day, is reflected along the central axis, the sea and sky indistinguishable from one another and the skyline, appearing out of the mist of dawn, retracting and then rising up again, reverberates at different pitches. Through visual reiteration, shadowy high-rises, a sound pattern emerges that was set to music by The Khoury Project. conceived in the dimensions of a panorama, it seems here that the city rises and falls in equal degrees in the individual sections of this work. It appears like a game of coming and going between the verticality of the towers stretching from earth to sky and the horizontality of the recumbent city."

Painterly characteristics in Sabella's use of Photography

Kamal Boullata noted, "Over the last decade he has been using his camera as a painter uses his brush... A few decades ago, that is, long before globalization permeated all fields of cultural expression in our world, I wrote on the evolution of Palestinian painting following the country's national catastrophe in 1948. I documented how painters living at home or as refugees in the proximity of the homeland have universally employed a representational language of expression. The further away they lived, the more they engaged in abstraction. At the time, I never imagined such a phenomenon could possibly manifest itself in the field of photography."

Hubertus von Amelunxen wrote, "Were metaphor not so misleading, I would say that Sabella paints with photography. The individual photograph takes on meaning only as material and as citation of a reality, so as to then be bound into a structural mesh of forms. The material enables the theme to resound, gives the note, so to speak, to then be varied in different correlations. The photograph's objective impression, evident only upon closer scrutiny, is not revoked by the painterly gesture. On the contrary, the images make their impact through a gaze that cannot be correlated, cannot be attributed to something seen... So let us stop always seeing photography as a view of the world, as if it only revealed itself by leading us to what is. These images contain only what was before and what now corresponds to a becoming that is not based on the past."

Visual archaeology

As Sabella stated, "Maybe we need to explore the visual components of the world by looking into the image itself—just like in scientific research. We need to study images, the connections between them, their characteristics, and especially their origins by looking at them directly and not in constant comparison with reality."

"Image and perception are multilayered, and we might be living in a world with an infinite number of visual palimpsests. It is time to engage further in the process of looking at the connection of images to visual history. We should stop thinking of time and history in a linear way. Images can transport us to the past, present, future and beyond. We create our own journeys, journeys into the imagination where everything we imagine becomes a reality."

Selected artworks

Search (1997)

Identity (2002)

End of Days (2003)

Till the End (2004)

Kan Yama Kan (2005)

Jerusalem in Exile (2006)

Exit (2006)

Mentalopia (2007)

In Exile (2008)

Cécile Elise Sabella (2008)

Settlement – Six Israelis & One Palestinian (2008/2010)

In Transition (2010)

Euphoria (2010)

Beyond Euphoria (2011)

Metamorphosis (2012)

Independence (2013)

38 Days of re-collection (2014)

Sinopia (2014)

No Man's Land (2015)

Dependence (2016)

Selected tv / film documentaries & interviews

Published essays

Sabella has written critically on the value of Palestinian and Arab art, often focusing on the collision between the perceived intrinsic value of artworks versus their fiscal value. His writing also explores theoretical versus historical ways of understanding art and the "power of images and the realities they create."

Selected essays

Selected reviews

1. Porter, Venetia. "Histories of the Present: the Changing Worlds of Middle Eastern Artists" Contemporary Art from the Middle East: Regional Interactions with Global Art Discourses, Keshmirshekan, Hamid, ed., 2015
2. Rahman, Najat. "In the Wake of the Poetic - Palestinian Artists after Darwish", 2015.
3. Schoene, Dorothea. "Review: Steve Sabella - Photography 1997-2014", Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 44, No. 4, Summer 2015.
4. Bank, Charlotte. "Histories of the Present: the Changing Worlds of Middle Eastern Artists", Institute for Middle East Understanding, 2015.
5. "Book of the Month: Steve Sabella - Photography 1997-2014", This Week in Palestine, 2015.
6. Morse, Trent. "Shifting Sands: Photography and Beyond", Art+Auction, 2015.
7. Yale Preston, Madeline. "Steve Sabella: Creative Interpretation or Visual Deconstruction?", Tribe, 2015.
8. Thompson, Seth. "Steve Sabella: Independence", Afterimage, 2015.
9. Snaije, Olivia. "Why Paris’ First Festival of Arab Photography is More Important than Ever", CNN, 2015.
10. Irving, Sarah. "The Harrowed Hands of Palestine", Electronic Intifada, 2015.
11. Bouarrouj, Khelil. ""Declaration of Independence,” Interview with Artist Steve Sabella", Palestine Square - The Blog of the Institute for Palestine Studies, 2015.
12. "New Constellations for Steve Sabella", Canvas, 2015.
13. Wesemann, Arnd. "Independence - The Light Dancers of Steve Sabella", 2015.
14. "A Drift", 2015.
15. Jones, Kevin. "Steve Sabella - Meem Gallery", 2014.
16. Dillon, Stephen. "An Artist Examines the Israel-Palestine Conflict in Dark, Ambiguous Photographs", Artsy, 2014.
17. "FotoFest 2014 - Steve Sabella" L’Oeil de la Photographie, 2014.
18. Kalsi, Jyoti. "Liberation as a State of Mind" Gulf News, 2014.
19. Yale Preston, Madeline. "Free-Falling Into the Future: In Conversation with Steve Sabella" Independence Exhibition Catalogue, Meem Gallery, Dubai, 2014.
20. Horsman, Meagan Kelly. "Foreword" Independence Exhibition Catalogue, Meem Gallery, Dubai, 2014.
21. "Steve Sabella: Insights into the Nature of Identity and Visual Reality" Cedar Wings, 2014.
22. Adrian von Roques, Karin. "Steve Sabella: An Encounter" Archaeology of the Future Exhibition Catalogue, International Center for Photography Scavi Scaligeri, Verona, 2014.
23. Benedetti, Beatrice. "Discoveries of a Mental Journey" Archaeology of the Future Exhibition Catalogue, International Center for Photography Scavi Scaligeri, Verona, 2014.
24. Mansour, Leda. "In the Darkroom with Steve Sabella" Archaeology of the Future Exhibition Catalogue, International Center for Photography Scavi Scaligeri, Verona, 2014.
25. Halasa, Malu. "Beyond Palestine" Layers Exhibition Catalogue, Contemporary Art Platform (CAP), Kuwait, 2014.
26. Al Kadiri, Abed. "Foreword" Layers Exhibition Catalogue, Contemporary Art Platform (CAP), Kuwait, 2014.
27. Amelunxen, Hubertus von. Steve Sabella - Photography 1997-2014, published by Hatje Cantz, 2014.
28. Boullata, Kamal. "Foreword" In Steve Sabella - Photography 1997-2014, published by Hatje Cantz, 2014.
29. Buali, Sheyma. "Review: Fragments" Harper's Bazaar Art Arabia, 2014.
30. Pollman, Lisa. "Palestinian Photographer Steve Sabella Declares Independence through Mental Images – Book Review" Art Radar, 2014.
31. Altug, Evrim. "Palestinian Tragedy through the Eyes of the Artist" Cumhuriyet, 2014.
32. Mann, Robin. "Preserving the Image" Canvas, 2014.
33. Gabsi, Wafa. "Image as Witness - Archeology of the Past: Interview with Steve Sabella" Contemporary Practices, 2012.
34. Adrian von Roques, Karin (ed.) et al. "Steve Sabella" View from the Inside: Contemporary Arab Photography, Video and Mixed Media Art Exhibition Catalogue, Schilt Publishing, 2014, pp. 150–55.
35. Snaije, Olivia et al. "Steve Sabella - Disturbia and Metamorphosis" Keep Your Eye On The Wall: Palestinian Landscapes Exhibition Catalogue, published by Saqi Books, 2013.
36. "The Last Word" Canvas, 2013.
37. Schoene, Dorothea. "Steve Sabella's Ecdysis: The Catharsis of Metamorphosis" Contemporary Practices, 2012.
38. Schoene, Dorothea. "Stages of Transition. Visualizing exile in the work of Steve Sabella" Afterimage - The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism, Vol. 39, No. 6. 2012.
39. Boullata, Kamal. "The Artist's Child" Between Exits - Paintings by Hani Zurob, published by Black Dog Publishing, 2012.
40. Bardaouil, Sam et al. "Lara Baladi, Mounir Fatmi, Adel Abidin, Hassan Khan and Steve Sabella" Told Untold Retold Exhibition Catalogue, published by Skira Editore, 2011.
41. Myrna, Ayad. "Exodus and Back" Canvas, 2011.
42. Rossino, Sara. Steve Sabella in Conversation with Sara Rossino The Changing Room Exhibition Catalogue, curated by Aida Eltorie, 2011.
43. Paula, Christa. "Euphoria & Beyond"' 'Exhibition Catalogue, 2011.
44. El Rashidi, Yasmin. "Steve Sabella - The Journey of Artistic Interrogation and Introspection", Contemporary Practices VI, 2010.
45. Corgnati, Martina. "Steve Sabella" Contemporary Practices VI, 2010.
46. Bank, Charlotte. "Steve Sabella: In Exile" Nafas Art Magazine - Universe in Universe, 2010.
47. Rossino, Sara. "Steve Sabella in Exile - Conversation with the Artist" In Exile, Metroquadro Gallery, Turin, 2010.
48. Amirsadeghi, Hossein (ed.) et al. "Steve Sabella" New Vision - Arab Contemporary Art in the 21st Century Exhibition Catalogue, published by Thames & Hudson and TransGlobe Publishing, 2009.
49. Ann, Manie. "Steve Sabella" Mixed Messages: The Versatility of Collage, published by A & C Black Publishers Ltd, 2012.
50. Krohn, Zia and Joyce Lagerweij. "Steve Sabella" Concrete Messages, published by Dokument in Sweden p. 59 - 63. 2010.
51. Boullata, Kamal. "Jerusalem in the Heart Two Urban Artists in Exile" Palestinian Art, published by Saqi Books, 2009.
52. Holledge, Richard. "Painting the Middle East with too Broad of a Brush?" Wall Street Journal, 2011.
53. "A Smithsonian in the Sand" The Economist, 2011.
54. Bank, Charlotte. "Euphoria and Beyond" Zakharif, 2011.
55. Barrett, Nyree. "Palestinian Art In Dubai" Time Out Dubai, 2010.
56. Sarkar, Bina. "Settlement" International Gallerie, Issue 25. 2010.
57. Ravel, Stephanie. "Territory in Exile - Exile of Identity" L'Agenda Magazine, 2010.
58. Rubenstein, Danny. "Steve Sabella Blurring the Lines" Haaretz, 2005.

Selected foreign language reviews

1. Al-As'ad, Mohammad. "Colonialism, In His Description, Is a Consumption of Images". Al Arabi El Jadid Newspaper. 05/01/2015.
2. Janjelo Al Kadiri, Maryam. "A Retrospective Exhibition for Steve Sabella". Al Arabi El Jadid Newspaper. 07/10/2014. (Arabic).
3. Altug, Evrim. "Palestinian Tragedy through the Eyes of the Artist". Cumhuriyet. 27-28/07/2014. (Turkish).
4. Jokie, Antoine. "Steve Sabella Occupation and Exile… and Transformations". Al Arabi El Jadid Newspaper. 14/032014. (Arabic).
5. Bank, Charlotte. "Grenzgänge. Beispiele künstlerischen Arbeitens über Exil und Entwurzelung". Springerin - Austria. 2011. (German).
6. Bank, Charlotte. "Steve Sabella: In Exile". Nafas Art Magazine - Universe in Universe. 2010. (German).
7. Engelcke, Doerthe. "Von Angesicht zu Angesicht. Settlement – Six Israelis & One Palestinian". Zenith Magazine, Jan 2009. (German).
8. Malekshahi, Aishe. "Palästina ist Heimat trotz Besatzung. Kultureller Widerstand von der Westbank bis Gaza". Dradio feature. 2005. (German).
9. Rossino, Sara. "Euphoria". Juliet Art Magazine, p. 46-47. (Italian).
10. Rossino, Sara. "Steve Sabella in Exile - Conversation with the Artist", Retrospective Review - text in Italian & English, Exhibition Catalogue published by the Metroquadro Gallery in Rivoli, Turin - May. 2010. (Italian)
11. Rossino, Sara. "Steve Sabella". Juliet Magazine no.150, 2010, p. 70. (Italian).
12. Darwish, Najwan. "Steve Sabella in London: Life is a Short Exile, but". Al-Akhbar Newspaper. 17/09/2008. (Arabic).
13. Darwish, Najwan. "Steve Sabella: Jerusalem in Exile and 'Yerushalayim' is not from Gold". Al-Quds Al-Arabi, London. 24/12/07. (Arabic).
14. Darwish, Najwan. "Steve Sabella from Jerusalem to Exile". Al-Ayyam Newspaper (Palestine) 4 September 2007. (Arabic).
15. Darwish, Najwan. "Steve Sabella: Volatile Identity. Postal Stamps from the Times of Globalization and Electronic Mail". Al-Akhbar Newspaper (Lebanon). 9 August 2007. (Arabic).