Many of you will know Mary Fitz and marvelled at how she brings back amazing photographs from some of the most difficult places. She is currently in the West Bank and sends us this fascinating report...

Hello from a residency programme in Ramallah city in the West Bank,

I'm out here doing a brief residency at an arts and cultural centre here called Al Qattan Foundation for the past month. I travelled from Tel Aviv through to Jerusalem and then from Damascus gate to Ramallah. Attached is a picture taken from some work I've been doing at the Kalandia checkpoint which is the main Israeli checkpoint as you come into Ramallah. I went to a great exhibition there the other day by a photographer called Khaled Jarrar who hangs the show just for a day on the fence as you come in the checkpoint area. He hands out the invites in the cafes and around the town and people come down to the checkpoint to see the work. Its a really brilliant spontaneous idea I think.

Essentially, I came with the aim of initiating and developing an art project here along similar themes to my previous work in the Middle East. However, I am very conscious of the over representation photographically by outsiders of this place and the relentless negative representations. Daily life goes on here despite circumstances. I am trying to make even quieter work on the issues of land and conflict and I cannot get the Seamus Heaney line out my head “Smoke-signals are loud-mouthed compared with us�. Things have not been so easy with the language barrier etc though I have a very modest modicum of arabic and can get by and I am learning more and understanding more quite rapidly. It is also difficult to move about with all the hassle of the checkpoints. You also have to get used to the intermittent but distant machine gun fire through the night at times…there is a tension here and the constant feeling that something could happen at any time.

However, the people in Ramallah have been very welcoming, spirited and incredibly generous and the place itself is quite beautiful. It seems a very special place. The people here remind me a lot of my time in Belfast where I did the Masters degree in Fine Art. The centre is actually a beautiful building up on the hill in Ramallah behind the Sakakina arts centre where Richard Gere did a show of his black and white photographs a few years ago. Al Qattan looks down over the centre of Ramallah. It’s quite a view. Funnily enough the exhibition that’s on in the gallery here is a show I first saw at the Bluecoat in Liverpool by Iranian photographic artist - Shadafarin Ghadirian. I'm sure you will remember the black and white pictures of women in arabic dress in small studio style portraits. I really liked the work the first time i saw it. It was shown at the Bluecoat in 2003 as part of the touring group exhibition ‘Veil’.
Today in Palestine is 'Land Day' - a special day therefore.

I've surprisingly been able to get quite a bit of work done despite trying to get used to the idea of being here and I will definitely be back in the region I am sure of that now that it is nearly time to go. I've taken over 1500 exposures - sounds a lot but its nothing - of which about 60 i think are the core of the project I wish to do. John Berger came to this residency a few years ago and many film makers and photographers. I've also just started to meet a lot of the artists, NGO's and journalists out here. You can meet people in some of the hangouts like Zan bar or Pronto or Stones. An excellent night out last at the Zan bar which is above the Kasabah theatre - which I believe is the only remaining theatre in Ramallah after the last intifada? I was told there used to be three theatres. There was a lot of singing and arabic dancing last night. Makes a good change from Kuwait where all public singing and dancing was apparently banned along with many other forms of enjoyment including the liquid variety. I went to see the Emperors New Clothes in arabic the other week at Al Kasabah. It was quite incredible to see it. Though I know the story of course but I couldn't understand this version - the arabic music was great.
I've also been lucky enough to be invited to Al Jelizon refugee camp which really was an incredible day and I came home laden with gifts people insisted on giving me including a dress. The old photographs from the original Palestinian villages that were destroyed - from the time when they first had to come to the refugee camps were really incredible. The old photographs here really are worth studying – they’re fascinating. I saw some photographs of the Manara square in the centre of Ramallah from fifty years ago and you can still recognise some of the buildings even though its completely changed in that time.

I'm off to Hebron in a few days to stay with friends there so that should be another interesting journey before I fly home on the 4th. It is supposed to be a difficult place Hebron. I'll be sad to leave all the people i have met here but hopefully this is the start of a big project so I'll possibly be returning soon with slightly less of a culture shock. So there will be no goodbyes from me yet....however I am so looking forward to stepping on scouse soil I can tell you - see you all in Liverpool soon...
http://www.maryfitzpatrick.co.uk/