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)
“Auditorium” by Franz West, Documenta IX, Kassel, 1992
Pants – Weekday; Black backless top – Juliana’s top; Jewellery – Juliana’s own
Story (5): Freedom is Luxury
TATI Store, Boulvard Rochechouart, Paris
Dress – Weekday; Denim Jacket – Vintage; Bag – Chanel;
Shoes, jewelry – Juliana’s own. Infront of TATI Store, Boulvard Rochechouart, Paris
Dress – Weekday; Denim Jacket – Vintage; Bag – Chanel;
Shoes, jewelry – Juliana’s own
Story (6): Home is a far away place
Dress – Vintage; Bag – Tati; Earrings, shoes: Juliana’s own. At Louvre Museum, Paris
Celine Tati Collection Fall/Winter 2013
“Cathedral Cars” by Thomas Mailaender
Left: Dress – Vintage; Bag – Tati; Earrings, shoes: Juliana’s own. Right:”Cathedral Cars” by Thomas Mailaender.
Celine Tati Collection Fall/Winter 2013
Dress – Vintage; Bag – Tati; Earrings, shoes: Juliana’s own
Story (8): Immigrant-Ignorant
Fille d’immigrés; daughter of immigrants by bARQUEtte, Paris
Denim Jacket – Vintage; Earrings: Juliana’s own