FirstLook: Mobile Library, Java

FirstLook May/June 2019 PDF
- Photographed by Putu Sayoga
Categories
- Creatives

In 2015 Ridwan Sururi of Serang Village, central Java, Indonesia, started the Kudapustaka (Horse library), and since then, three days a week, he has visited villages and schools like Miftahul Huda Islamic Elementary School. On this day he was joined by his two-year-old son, Tria Ramadhan. Together they handed out donated books to the students. As a photographer I did this story because I was also born in a village with difficult access to books. I believe in the power of books, and I know what Mr. Sururi is doing is important.
—Putu Sayoga
www.putusayoga.net
www.arkaproject.com
@putu_sayoga @arkaproject

The Handwritten Heritage of South Africa’s Kitabs

Written by Alia Yunis
Photographed by Samantha Reinders

One heirloom connects Muslim families of Cape Town to heritage more than any other: a kitab. Historians and linguists value them, too, as some preserve the first written form of the Afrikaans language, which was in Arabic script.

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History
Culture

A Crude History

Written and photographed by Beliz Tecirli

In the oblique and often provocative ways of contemporary art, the 17-artist exhibition “Crude” probes the roles of oil in cultures and societies of the Middle East through the eyes of artists of the region. It is “art rooted in the Gulf, yet addressing universal ideas,” says Antonia Carver, director of the new Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai, which in November inaugurated its galleries with the show.

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Creatives

Montpellier’s Multicultural Medicine

Written by Gerald Zarr
Photographed by Rebecca Marshall

Founded in the 10th century in southern France, Montpellier grew on commerce and knowledge. In the 12th century, Christian, Muslim and Jewish scholars opened what is today Europe’s oldest continuous school of medicine.

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History
Culture
Places

Modernism Awakening

Written by Juliet Highet // Images Courtesy Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah

The Modernist movement expressed postcolonial aspirations, elevated traditional cultures and redefined identities from Morocco to Egypt, Sudan, Iraq, the Levant, the Gulf and more. As Arab Modernist paintings command rising prices at art auctions, curators and historians are paying increasing attention to its diverse and dynamic origins.

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Creatives

Women Behind the Lens: The Middle East's First Female Photographers

Essays introduced and edited by Tom Verde

Some took portraits of women or worked in the labs of family studios. Some worked across the region with employers or family members. A few struck out on their own. None received much notice—until recently. Three historians introduce leading women photographers of the early 20th century in the Middle East.

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Creatives
History
People

Sirens of the Seagrass

Written by Alia Yunis

Gentle and at times curious, dugongs likely inspired the first tales of mermaids. Once widely hunted, they are now globally protected, but their food—seagrass—is in decline, and from East Africa to the Pacific Islands, conservationists and communities are taking action.

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