The conflict in Gaza this summer between the Israeli army on the one hand, and Hamas and Islamic Jihad forces on the other, caused 2502 deaths on the Palestinian side and 71 on the Israeli side (including 66 soldiers). Among the Palestinian victims, there are 1583 civilians, including 521 children and 283 women (figures from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) Since the cease-fire, the same organization has counted up to 100,000 internally displaced persons in the Gaza Strip, including 28,000 who fled to UNRWA schools that are used as shelters. The others found asylum, with relatives or, returned to live in the rubble of their houses in the hope of a financial assistance for the reconstruction.
It is within the heart of families that it is easier to perceive the reconstruction, both psychological and material. Gazan families, as in many Arab countries, bring together several generations under one roof. Many of them have been touched by far or near by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: refugee status, death of parents, injuries, imprisonment, forced unemployment, destruction of property, dispossession of land …
My work tries to answer my question: “How do Gazans manage to rebuild themselves both psychologically and materially following such a war? By retracing the living conditions and mental state of some Gazan families who lost all or part of their homes during the Israeli bombing.
Born in 1987 in Brussels, Virginie Nguyen Hoang completed her journalism studies at IHECS (Brussels) as well as photojournalism training at the Danish Shool of Media and Journalism (Denmark). In 2010, she became a photographer for the French agency Wostok Press, which she left in 2013. In the meantime, she joined the Studio Hanslucas (May 2012) and became co-founder of the HUMA Collective. From January 2012 to August 2014, she moved to Egypt to work freelance but also as a photojournalist for the local newspaper “Egypt Independent” and then “Mada Masr”. Virginie has made several reportages in Belgium but also in Syria, Egypt, Turkey, Libya, Iraq, Ukraine, Vietnam, the Philippines, Gaza and the Central African Republic. Virginie collaborates with many dailies and magazines such as The World, The Parisian Magazine, The Figaro, VSD, The Obs, Liberation, La croix, Le pelerin, Causette, The Weekly, The Illustrated, The Time, The Washington Post , Politiken, De Standaard, The Libre Belgique, … In 2014, Virginie received a special mention at the Roger Pic Prize for Scam with her subject “Gaza, the aftermath”. In 2016, her work on Gaza receives the 3rd place of the MIFA prize in the Editorial photo essay category.
https://virginie-nguyen.photoshelter.com/
Opening on February 6th at 6 pm Projection of the favourites of our jury 2018
The ANI Visas: Virginie Nguyen Hoang – Gaza, the aftermath, Belgium
February 5 to 23, 2019
Gobelins – L’école de l’image
73, boulevard Saint-Marcel, 75013 Paris
