Neither here nor there

بالعربي

Photographed by: Oumaima Dermoumi
Subject: Juliana Yazbeck
Styled by: Marwa Asserraji
Sitting editor: Khalid Abdel-Hadi
Creative Director: Marwa Asserraji, Oumaima Dermoumi, and Khalid Abdel-Hadi
Copy Editor: Eliza Marks
Behind the scenes conducted by: Camille Léage
Paris – France

Where do we belong in this world? How do we tell our story or use our voice?

How does singer Juliana Yazbeck do so as a woman, as a young woman, as a young Arab woman living in the West? How does she do so as a child of immigration? We listened to her song “Alihat” over and over again in celebration of the strong and powerful woman. She needs no savior.

With this shoot, we explored immigration and what comes to mind when worlds meet in dissonance. What is forgotten? What is sacrificed?

Neither here nor there. We find ourselves in the construction of our world, searching to find our bearings. We resettle what belongs to us with our own codes. We impose ourselves. But, we also try to understand. We find similarities and make them our pillar.

In this shoot, we assert the woman’s place in public space, rejecting both the orientalists and the patriarchs who killed Sheherazad.

Lost in our complex identities, we expressed our anger, our fear. We let ourselves free and entered in symbiosis with the place. We faced our true selves.

This photo essay tells the story of a multifaceted quest for identity found in every corner of Paris. Gender identity, race, immigration and class… Many questions, many assumptions and few answers. Children of immigration, who are we really?”

Story (1): A Place I once knew

White Shirt – Weekday; Top, Trousers, Belt, jewelry: Juliana’s own. At Agad’Or restaurant, Barbes – Paris

Agad’Or restaurant, Barbes – Paris

White Shirt – Weekday; Top, Trousers, Belt, jewelry: Juliana’s own

White Shirt – Weekday; Top, Trousers, Belt, jewelry: Juliana’s own

Story (2): What silence can do

Swimsuit top and Trousers -Weekday; Jewelry – Juliana’s own. At Bourdelle Museum

Bourdelle Museum

Swimsuit top and Trousers -Weekday; Jewelry – Juliana’s own

Story (3): Transmigration

Bourdelle Museum

Dress – Weekday; Jewerly, shoes; Juliana’s own. At Bourdelle Museum

Spring-Summer 2015 Ready-to-Wear CHANEL Show

“Back Side / Fashion from Behind”, an off-site exhibition at the Musée Bourdelle, focusing on clothing seen from behind. (2019)

Dress – Weekday; Jewerly, shoes; Juliana’s own

Story (4): The Hidden Face of Eve

Pants – Weekday; Belt – Vintage; Black backless top, Jewellery – Juliana’s own. At Centre Culturel Pouya, Paris

Left: “La Grande Odalisque” by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1814). Right: Book of the Egyptian feminist Nawal El Saadawi ‘The Hidden Face of Eve’ (الوجه العاري للمرأة العربية)