VIA DELLA FORNACE 41 50125 FIRENZE
Zied Ben Romdhane
Born in 1981 in Tunisia; began his career as a commercial photographer. In 2011 he decided to focus on documentary photography and photojournalism. His work has been published in “The New York Times” and “The Washington Post”.
His recent exhibitions include: Views of Tunisia (Arles 2013), After the Revolution (White Box, New York 2013), Zones d’Attente (Clark House, Bombay 2013), Kushti (Maison de la Tunisie, Paris 2013), Fotofest Biennial at the Houston Center for Photography (Houston, USA 2014), Sahel (1×1 Gallery, Dubai 2014), Trace (MUCEM, Marseille 2015), Afrotopia, African biennial of photography (Bamako, Mali 2017) and the Biennial of Photography of the Contemporary Arab World (France, Paris 2017). In 2018, Romdhane published his first book, West of Life, with Red Hook Editions. Awards and honors received include selection for the World Press Photo Foundation’s 2018 Prize 6×6 Global Talent Program, participation in World Press Photo’s Joop Swart Masterclass, and winning the POPCAP award (Africa Image, Basel, 2015).
Mohamed Mahdy (Egypt, 1996) is a Visual storyteller based in Alexandria, Egypt, whose work focuses on buried and invisible communities in Egypt as well as cultural and social issues. She firmly believes that immersing herself in diverse communities and telling their stories means embedding these experiences permanently into the fabric of a larger community. Her work has been exhibited at the 25th Youth Salon and the Ministry of Culture, as well as the Paris Biennale. He has exhibited twice with the Ian Parry Scholarship in London and also at Photoville in New York. In 2018 he was named by the New York Times Lens blog as one of 12 emerging photographers to know.
Nadia Bseiso
Is a Jordanian documentary photographer based in Amman. She received a bachelor’s degree in photography from Florence, Italy, in 2011, and in 2015 was awarded an artist residency at the Fondazione Fotografia in Modena, Italy. She focuses on long-term projects based on personal research in geopolitics, history, anthropology and environmental degradation.In 2016, she was selected for the Arab Documentary Photography Program, funded by the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, the Magnum Foundation and the Prince Claus Fund, for her project Infertile Crescent.
She was selected as a photographer to follow globally by Time – Light Box in March 2017. She has worked with several local and international NGOs since 2011. Her clients include Unicef, The New York Times, The Telegraph, Reuters, Zeit magazine, The Intercept, The Globe and Mail, and U.S. News & World Report.
Roï Saade
Is an interdisciplinary artist interested in the intersection of graphic design, photography and visual arts and curator of the exhibition AIR, RIVER, SEA, SOIL. A History of an Exploited Land, at Rifugio Digitale.
His process-based practice is grounded in a close collaboration between artist, designer and curator. His approach is enriched by careful visual research and creative exchange. Roï is interested in finding and creating ways to resist systems of domination and inequality.
As a photographer, his work seeks to investigate individual and collective identity and experience through the documentation of social and personal encounters. He often collaborates with Tamara Abdul Hadi, his life and vision partner.
His virtual studio deals with projects such as branding, cultural and artistic projects, and publications. Roï has designed and curated exhibitions, corporate identities, magazines and specialized in book design, where he combines his passion for photography and design.
Roï holds an MFA in Graphic Design from USEK University in Lebanon. He is currently a Research Associate at the Access in the Making research lab at Concordia University in Montreal.
Tamara Abdul Hadi
Is an Iraqi photographer whose work deals with the historical and contemporary representation of her culture in its diversity.In addition to being a photographer, Tamara is an educator who has taught photography courses in Palestine, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Tunisia, and Canada. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The National, Huck Magazine, VICE, Slate and others.Abdul Hadi was a founder of Rawiya Collective, a cooperative of female photographers in the Middle East. She is a member of We Are The Medium, an art collective of interdisciplinary artists working independently.She frequently collaborates with Roï Saade, her partner in life and vision.Tamara holds an MFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Her photographs have been exhibited in the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Kuwait, France, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Spain, Hungary, Canada and the United States.
Aur, River, Sea, Soil. A History of an Exploited Land
17.10 – 03.11.2025
Special Project of
Middle East Now Festival
AIR, RIVER, SEA, SOIL. A History of an Exploited Land is a special project by the Middle East Now Festival. The exhibition, curated by Roï Saade, was collectively developed in 2022 by Access in the Making (AIM) Lab, a research laboratory grounded in anti-colonial, anti-ableist, and feminist principles. AIM Lab explores themes such as accessibility, disability, environment, and care through creative experimentation, adopting an innovative approach to accessibility in the arts. The event is organized in collaboration with Forma Edizioni.
… AIR, RIVER, SEA, SOIL. A History of an Exploited Land examines how colonial rule—both past and present—along with forced displacement, land expropriation, political unrest, capitalist pressures, wars, and conflicts, have transformed the Middle East and North Africa into a patchwork of surveilled and militarized territories. These dynamics divide communities, hinder movement, and sever people from their connection to the land. While the capitalist and colonialist world order continues to extract natural resources for profit, local communities are left to survive in conditions of chronic neglect and precarity. This reality is explored through the work of five photographers and artists. Beginning in North Africa, specifically northwestern Tunisia, Lost in Moments by Zied Ben Romdhane introduces us to the living conditions of villagers in the Jendouba region, who struggle to access clean drinking water. From there, we move to Egypt, west of Alexandria, where Mohamed Mahdy’s Moon Dust documents the effects of air pollution caused by a cement factory and its threatening consequences on the health of residents in Wadi El Qamar (Valley of the Moon). Shifting eastward to Jordan, Infertile Crescent by Nadia Bseiso explores the dry, scorched lands of the modern Jordanian map and the environmental toll caused by man-made borders in what was once a fertile region. We then arrive in Lebanon, where Roï Saade’s The Epic of Dalieh recounts the illegal privatization of land and sea in Beirut, drawing parallels with an ancient epic. Finally, we reach Iraq, where Tamara Abdul Hadi’s Re-imagining. Return to the Marshesoffers a way to reimagine and reclaim the stories of the people and wetlands of southern Iraq, known as Al-Ahwar. 
