View from iInside

View From Inside is an expansive presentation of contemporary Arabvideo, photography, and mixed media from the Middle East andNorth Africa. The book shows the works of fifty leading Arab artistsfrom fourteen countries. The works reflect the emergence ofphotographic, video and digital art as important forms of creativevisual expression in the Arab world over the past twenty years. Theartworks address a broad range of issues that the artists themselveshave defined as important to the modern Arab experience. Four textscover the early appearance of photography in the Middle East andNorth Africa in the mid-nineteenth century through photography'sevolution as an integral part of the contemporary Arab art world.The author of the lead essay oncontemporary photographic art is thepioneering curator and expert on classicalIslamic art and contemporary Arab art,Karin Adrian von Roques. Ms. VonRoques has worked in the Middle Eastand North Africa for more than twentyyears, bringing important contemporaryArab art to museum audiences in Europe,Asia and the United States. Essays on thehistory of Arab photographic expressionare being written by Samer Mohdad,a well-known Lebanese photographer,writer and co-founder of theFondation de l'Image Arabe in Beirut;Dr. Claude W. Sui, chief curator of theInternational Forum of Photography atthe Reiss-Engelhorn Museum inMannheim, Germany and curator ofexhibitions on nineteenth centuryphotography in Arabia and To the HolyLands: Mecca and Medina to Jerusalem.Mona Khazindar, Director General of theInstitute du Monde Arabe in Paris willwrite an essay on the history of modernArab photography and its relationship tocontemporary art. Wendy Watriss,Senior Curator and Artistic Director forFotoFest International will write theintroductory essay for the book.View From Inside will have over 200reproductions of artworks by Arab artists.It will also contain a DVD with videomaterial. The book is a collaborationbetween Schilt Publishing and FotoFestInternational.