The Visibility of Bedouin Women in the Negev as Reflected in the Private Photographic Collection of Dr Ben Assa

Abstract

This article presents a private collection of photographs of Bedouins living in the Negev desert in Southern Israel in the 1950s–1960s: the personal collection of the Dutch-born Benjamin Yehudah Ben Assa (1917–1976), a medical doctor known to the Bedouins as Abu Assa. The study explores the forms of presentation of women in his photographs, mostly while being treated in his clinic during his medical practice. The analysis of the photographs relates to lifestyle and traditions of Bedouin women and the way in which these affected his construction of images. The exploration relates to the forms of visibility of Bedouin women in the public sphere, expanding on traditional practices of photographing Bedouin women in the Middle East in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.