That interest turned into a conversation about raising awareness and funds to aid the January 25 heroes. Soon I was on my way to Egypt, this is a preview of what I was able to capture.

The mother of an 18 year old boy who was shot and killed during the uprisings. 9 months after the incident, not one person has been brought to justice for his murder.

Ashraf, 41 years old, was shot in the leg on January 28th, after receiving basic medical aid, Ashraf was only addmitted for surgery on May 11th, meaning he spent around 4 months with a bullet in his body.

Ashraf in the city of dead , cairo

Ahmad and Ali, both guys lost eye sight in their left eyes due to rubber bullets injuries, Ali to the right , still has a bullet in his forehead. Both returned to Tahrir Square the very next day to continue the fight, picture taken in Tahrir square.

Sign reads " The revolution continues"

The last time we posted something Hip Hop it was about our work with some of the top artists in the industry, guys like Nas, Damian Marley, Jay Electronica, Eryka Badu and Mr. Porter; today we take you to the other side of what we do. The underground side of things.

This time our journey took us to AL- Hussein refugee camp in Amman, to document the wonderful work done by Danish group of DJ and MC’s, a project whose “ Overall aim was to include a marginalized group of young Palestinian boys and girls in the global youth culture of dj-ing and give them the possibility to make it their own.” The project also teaches kids how to write their own lyrics and verses.

I could go on and on about how wonderful this group is, and how important their work is in bringing hope, compassion and understanding to a marginalized part of our society, but honestly if I have to explain it to you then I am talking to the wrong audience. All I can say however is thank you. There is a lot of effort, time, hard work and travel that goes into this,  to go through all that in order to bridge cultures closer and for the love of music ,is humbling to say the least.

Two Jordanian artists helped the Danish crew at the workshop, and these two happen to be some of my favorite people in the Jordanian artistic scene. Ustaz Sam (whom you have probably seen in the Arabs Got talent show on MBC, and Damar, Jordan’s finest beat maker), I admire these guys not only because of their artistic talents but because they understand the social and community aspects of their work and are always willing to help others in the community.

What impressed me the most was the communal brotherly feeling of the workshop, the kids don’t speak English very well, yet they formed a beautiful bond with the Danish DJ’s and rappers. To me that’s what hip hop is all about, that unexplainable bond between people from different background, races, cultures and countries coming together to make music and share a wonderful experience. The only bond being their shared humanity and music.

I guess that tough upbringing conditions make kids understand the world around them a lot better and at a younger age. I say this because when I heard the kids rap, they spoke of some real serious problems they face in their daily lives, some talked about the conditions in school, others talked about how religion is taught at schools and others talked about how hard it is to do something different in society. I mean a couple of these kids were wearing Che Guevara t-shirts, for them to draw parallels between Che and Hip Hop and their own personal conditions shows a level of maturity that is seldom seen in kids that age.

Finally, we would  like to thank the Danish team for allowing us to tag along and for all the love and kindness they showed the kids. We  hope to continue working together in the future and build the project further.

It was a beautiful summer evening in Paris, the weather was simply amazing, the event was held at one of the nicest palaces I have seen, the typical Paris story would dictate that I now go on and talk about the beautiful lady sharing that evening with me, instead I was surrounded by two Jordanian from the city of Karak, oh yes and a selection of some of the finest photographers in history!

Che, Nasser, the Vietnam war, the construction of the Berlin wall, the Six days war, Arafat, King Hussein, Sadat, Nixon, are all iconic personalities and events in mankind’s history, when one thinks of them, one often thinks of them in relation to an image, most these images were taken by Magnum photographers with Leica cameras.

Though they have shared over 60 years of history together, the relationship between Leica and Magnum was never formalized and that was the purpose of this event. Leica also introduced its new M9 model , and btw Leica if you are reading this Laith and I still demand that we get a couple of those.

The event began with panel discussions about the challenges photojournalists face in today’s world vis-à-vis technological developments such as phone camera, twitter and facebook. The panel included, representatives from the media , Leica , Magnum .  Leica had asked us to nominate a blogger to participate in this discussion and our choice was Jordan’s own Naseem Tarawneh, founder and contributor to http://www.black-iris.com/ and 7iber.com.  As evident by the video Leica put out and  feedback we got from the attendees, that was indeed a very wise choice. I take immense pride in what this young man and his team has managed to do in reference to social media in Jordan and the Arab world, and to see him debate his point of view with such knowledge and confidence was simply awesome.

After the debate, the attendees were invited to a reception dinner and that really was when the fun began, as Laith and I began debating on how to best approach photographers whom we have admired for so long . Do you go up to them and introduce yourself and try to show them your portfolio? Do you wait for a Leica contact to introduce you? We really did not know.

To our surprise it was they who approached us! And I think they did so because of two things, first Naseems excellent contribution to the discussion panel .I also think people were curious to know what three Jordanians were doing at such an event.

Here is the interesting thing about great photographers, while most people would recognize their work, their rarely know how the photographer looks like .  So, Laith, Naseem and I were talking when a gentleman appraoched us and asked  if we were all from Jordan . He then he asked us if we were Palestinian background .

The man soon followed that question with tales of shooting in Amman before and during Black September in Jordan.  He told us of shooting with President Nasser during wartime, of shooting with King Hussein during the course of his 40 plus year rule,  of shooting at the offices of Nayif Hawatmeh, George Habash and so on and so forth. The man only introduced himself as Bruno and at one stage, I leaned towards Laith and asked him, “ That cant be Bruno Barbey can it?” soon we asked him, and when he told us he was he reached to get out a business card as if to verify it!

Bruno soon introduced us to Rene Burri, whose first words to us were “ Keffak Habibi “ which in Arabic means “ How are you beloved “ and he too shared with us some remarkable stories about Che Guevara, Castro, Nasser, and King Hussein among others.

This wonderful experience made me realize a few things, first and this goes out to all aspiring photographers, reach out man, if you are fond of a certain photographers work, reach out to them, most of the time you will get a positive response, in the past two years we have gotten some wonderful responses from some of the best photographers in the world, whether it was the Mochilla crew out in LA, Ron Haviv from VII or Magnum in this case. What drives most of these photographers is the search for a better understanding of the world and to capture truths that are seldom seen in mainstream media, so they always welcome additions to their ranks.

Second and this is geared to people in the Middle East, we should no longer contend of being able to say ” the best in Jordan” or “the first to do so and so in the Middle East”, aim for the stars son.  At that event I saw first hand how we have bloggers capable of going head to head with photo editors of some of the top publications in the world. The same applies to filmmakers, musicians, writers, producers etc. Stop comparing yourselves and your work with fellow Arabs or people around you, strive for your work to be on the same level of the best who ever done it.

Third,  hearing all those wonderful tales about modern Middle Eastern history from, people who were there to witness it, was exciting but it also made me sad, because after all these years, that work has never been shown in our region. Take the work that was done by these photographers in Jordan in the 1960’s and 70’s as an example, most of these events are not even taught in school curriculum in Jordan, and today in the Middle East as we work to shape our future, much of that narrative is missing, its missing from the minds of the people, from the speeches of the reformers and most certainly from the official narrative, so how can we proceed properly and learn from our mistakes of if we even refuse to talk about them?

Lastly, while there have been many great Arab or Middle Eastern photographers in the past and present, none have made it to agencies like Magnum or VII, this is important because most of the significant work in photography has been done in the middle east but it has been missing our own take on the narrative. I hope to see one of us make it one day and I have a feeling that we will witness that soon.

Jean Jacque, thank you once again man, not in our wildest dreams did we ever think we would have this opportunity.

Once again , we would like to thank our good friends and partners  @Leica and @ mochilla for opening up doors to opportunities we know we would not have without them. Special thanks go to Jay electronica for the trust and support he showed us by choosing to work with us , to have our work associated with one of the most sought after rappers in the game is an honor that we hope we can live up to. To the different photographers, editors , directors and producers we worked with this past month , B+ ,Eric Coleman,Michael Park, Byez,Luke Lynch,Jerry Henry ,Andrew Barchilon,Paul McCarthy and Will Quantic, thank you for making this job so much fun and so much easier . For family and friends , we love you.

Last month’s work took us from South Africa to Manchester, first to  document  the making of one of the most anticipated hip hop albums in history, Jay Electronica’s ACT II . a couple of weeks later , with the same partners in crime, mochilla ,Immortal helped document Nas and Damian Marley tour in Europe, including the opening night at Wembley Arena with the magical Erykah Badu.

Working , shooting and building  with some of the best musicians, rappers, producers and photographers in the industry  has been surreal at moments, like hearing one of the best beats I have heard in my life drop in a studio in South Africa at 8 am in the morning or standing in the pit in Manchester ,few feet away from Nas and Damian with an M9 , my mind not really grasping what I was capturing .

Did not talk much about South Africa but I think this video that we along with Eric Coleman , shot, edited and produced gives of good indication of how things went down.

Lyrics:-

Chorus:translation:
Long live the Arab republic of Egypt whose good people, don’t understand their situation , modern ways of living is all they seek
my nation nation my nation my nation, you have all my love and heartbeen calling it out and yet you remained the sameand the problem is that situation is not letting me remain calm any longer
Verse 1I stood infront of the Palace and looked at the people in Egypt, trying to figure the system , found too many issues to be counted, got shook when I found conversations I become fond of , ones are not found at home, get it stupid?Verse 2Blind imitation in Egyptian youth has become the normHigh school , grade school and graduates kids says they want to become this and that with no sense of direction , calmly look with me and examine this world.Verse 3look at the foreign world thatss invading the republicevery side, every corner invaded with satanic thoughtsthrew our breath of air in the middle of watermade the people think in a different world , forgot out eastern traditionsVerse 4At times when dialogue is needed: in conversations and behavior , in thinking, in expression and in estimation , instead we got extremism, freakiness and blurred vision( pictures shows writing of the world comparing women who don’t wear Hijab to adulterers )Verse 5listen up and pay attention to that son of ++++ of an operationthere are sad people, there are miserable people , there are people who their minds locked in safes and the mind is left to be a decoration inside of a showcaseall wake up and focus with me with my tight words
instead of chilled times and laughter , we got regrets and anger.Verse 6he wants to be free and she wants to be freehe wants to live on another planet and she wants to leave the barrel said a hundred million times , but no one paid attentionthere is something wrong , thats for sure but what is it ( sign in picture read, the route of the idiots )
verse 7
look at where i am coming from, all say who it isshame on you if you don’t know , stay with me listeningMC Amin, a human from the people or you can call me an egyptian from the egyptians that are coming to flip the scalesmy attack is like that of a dragon look at me with two eyesyou will understand everything i have been wanting to say for years , but for right now, all i want to say is good morning to the Egyptians
chorus
my nation nation my nation my nation, you have all my love and heartbeen calling it out and yet you remained the sameand the problem is that situation is not letting me remain calm any longer

to the best of my mental abilities under the influence of the flu

واقف فى القصر, بتفرج على الناس فى مصربشوف اية النظام, لقيت حاجات كتير ملهاش حصرو اتخضيت لما لقيت حوارات كتير ليها اتشديتمش جوة البيت ولا فى الغيط, افهم بس يا عبيط
التقليد العميانى فالشاب المصرى بقى شئ عادىشاب فى ثاناوى رجل مخلص او طفل فى الاعدادىيشوف يقول انا هبقى كدة من غير لا حادى ولا بادىطب عالهادى تعالو معايا نبص كويس فى الدنيا دى

نشوف الدنيا الاجنبية اللى بتغزو الجمهوريةفى كل حتة فى اى جنب بالافكار الشيطانيةرمولنا حاجة الهوا دوبوهالنا وسط الميةخلو الناس فى حتة تانية نسيو عادتنا الشرقية

فالكلام وقت اللزوم فى الحوارات و فى التصرففالتفكير فالتعبير فالتقدير بقى فى تطرفو فى شزوز و مجال الرؤية بقى مهزوزبدل ما تقعد تدحك اتحسر و اضرب انت بوز

اوز يبقى حر و هى عاوزة تبقى حرةعاوز يعيش فى كوكب تانى و هى عاوزة تطلع من الجرةميت مليون مرة قلت و محدش مدينى ودانوفى شئ اكيد غلط بس فين عنوانو

كلو يخلى بالو ان العملية بنت لزينةفى ناس حزينة فى ناس تعيسة فى ناس دماغهة فى الخزينةبس العقل زينة جوة فى الفاترينةكلو يصحى يفوق يركز معايا فى كلماتى المتينة

بصو شوفو جاى منين, كلو يقولى هو مينعيب عليكو مش عارفين, طب خليكو معايا سامعينام سى امين, بنى ادم من البنى ادميناو تقدرو تقولو واحد مصرى من المصريين

اللى جايين عايزين يقلبو الموازيندة هجومى هجوم تنين بصلى بعنيك الاتنينهتفهم كل حاجة انا عاوز اقلها من سنينبس اوانها اهو جة دلوقتى, صباح الفل يا مصريين

تحية الجمهورية العربية المصريةاللى ناسها كويسيين اللى ناسها مية ميةاللى ناسها مش فاهمين, العملية و القضيةدماغهم رايحة فى حتة واحدة, هى الحباة العصرية
تحية الجمهورية العربية المصريةاللى ناسها كويسيين اللى ناسها مية ميةاللى ناسها مش فاهمين, العملية و القضيةدماغهم رايحة فى حتة واحدة, هى الحباة العصرية
بلادى بلادى بلادى لكى حبى و فؤادىبقالى كتير بنادى و الناس كلها عادىبلادى بلادى بلادى لكى حبى و فؤادىبس المشكلة ان الوضع مش مخلينى ابقى هادى
بلادى بلادى بلادى لكى حبى و فؤادىبقالى كتير بنادى و الناس كلها عادىبلادى بلادى بلادى لكى حبى و فؤادىبس المشكلة ان الوضع مش مخلينى ابقى هادى

Over the past year and a half, we have been doing a lot of work in video and production especially in the realm of documenting the movement and culture of Arab hip hop, both in the Middle East and the diaspora. We’ve produced 4 music videos for Omar Offendum, C-Mack from Los Angeles, Arabian Knightz from Egypt and Dj Lethal Skillz in Beirut, two of which will be dropping very soon.

So for the beginning of this year  we decided to put together a reel that represents our  filming style and approach, our experiences, our travels, the shows we’ve put on in Amman and Beirut, and the visit of Jay Electronica and Mochilla to Jordan and Egypt.

Make sure you watch the video at the highest quality. Enjoy.

A couple of months ago we headed out to Cairo to shoot two music videos for Arabian Knightz….one of the leading hip hop crews in the region.

“Operation Lost Art” is one of those songs and it is off the new album from Dj Lethal Skillz…we ended up shooting in Cairo and Beirut.

The video should be out in the beginning of next year, but till then here is a little teaser for you along with some stills from the making of the video.

This was our feeling at the end of 3 days of shooting in Cairo.

Identity is a central element of elections, this is ever so present in Jordan, and with over 50% of our population coming from Palestinian backgrounds, the Palestinian issue is a dominant one in Jordanian politics. The fact that a lot of candidates chose to run on heavily oriented Palestinian issues is a reflection on how many Jordanians feel about their role in society. These candidates and their supporters are second and third generation Jordanians, they were born here, they went to school and work and marry and breed here. So what does it mean when this segment of society speaks of itself as the homeless in election banners? The aspiration to return to a homeland different to the one where the voters and candidates live and practice their political rights, is not problematic, for it to be the focal point on the platform of candidates, is.

The banner reads : All the support and aid for the proponent of the homeless.

Poster on the right : There is no alternative to Palestine but Paradise. Poster on the left : People who leave jihad have succumbed to disgrace . Both posters have a picture of the candidate burning the Israeli flag, he received the largest number of votes in the country.

" The people of Jordan and Palestine sing; Khalil Hussein ( The Candidates Name) the creator of glory and morale lifter, Yafa, Haifa, AL-Lid , Al Ramla and AL Khalil ( All Palestinian town and cities ) are calling on us, there is no replacement for us . No matter how long the days get and how prolonged our abscene from relatives is , victory is coming despite our shortcomings and failures , the blood on the martyr lives in our veins .

For these types of feelings and sentiments to prevail so powerfully, is a worrying and troubling aspect. These candidates seem to seriously imply that such issues are in the control of the Jordanian Parliament. Which would more or less mean that the candidate believes he has a chance to become a member of the most powerful political entity in the world. Also alarming is the fact that most of the supporters come from lower income part of the capital where issues of poverty, sanitation, health and, unemployment public services are very serious issues, yet the electoral platform is built on the promise of a better tomorrow, in a different country. This, I think ,speaks volumes about the levels of uncertainty and despair significant segments of society feel about their future in the country.

All three pictures were taken in Downtown Amman.

Those who curse the mothers of the believers are not believers, a fitting campaign slogan in response to the conditions illustrated above .

This candidate gathered more votes than any other in the kingdom.

The appeal of the Palestinian cause and the increased religiousness of certain segments of society have also been utilized heavily by the Islamists. Officially, the Muslim Brotherhood announced their boycott of the elections, however this led to internal strive within their ranks and subsequently a lot of members resigned and ran either under other Islamic parties or as independents.

While some nationalists tried to utilize the appeal of a better tomorrow in a different homeland, the Islamists focused instead on the appeal of time travel, as was illustrated by the apocalyptic themed and named political support rally, the big crawl.

Shot at an election event for a muslim party candidate. Real nice people.

The Big Crawl, al sahf al kabeer in Arabic, was held in support of a candidate of the Islamic Middle Party, it attracted a considerable crowd of 5000 people, less of 100 were women, an in adherence to what the organizers thing is Islamic customs than go back 1500 years, these women were quarantined in a separate section at the venue. Beards were long and untidy also in accordance to what these supporters believe early Muslims practiced.

A sheikh , took the role of giving the welcoming speech and introducing the speakers, he had mentioned that the speeches were going to be short because there were 30 speakers, none of whom were women. The speakers ranged from retired schoolteachers who were aided by the candidate to obtain a lower income electric bill plan, to engineers and local leaders of spoke of the high integrity of the candidate.

Since a considerable number of Islamists and clerics had declared the participation in elections as a forbidden act in Islam, the candidate needed to justify his participation in religious terms and as such, the host, soon declared that a prominent religious speaks was going to take to the podium next. A few moments after that declaration, the host informed the guests that the religious scholar had fell ill and had instead sent an audio tape in which he explains how it was permissible for the candidate to run. The rationale it seemed was that scholars view elections and participation in them as haram because they system on which they are based on and the laws and regulations that oversee the election were not Islamic and thus are Haram. He then proceeded to explain that such corrupt laws need to be changed into Islamic ones and thus he had lent his support to the candidate in the hope that once in power he will be able to alter election laws to adhere to Islamic laws.

With the watchful eye of the police close by, the rally speakers and the host speaker , walked a very tight rope of political correctness, as required by the laws and regulations, the rally started with the national anthem followed by a short speech by the host speaker, welcoming guests, pledging allegiances to the king and the Hashemite regime and to the Palestinian resistance i.e. Hamas who has continuously exchanged accusations of meddling in internal affairs, smuggling weapons in recent years . Whether these accusations are true or not is irrelevant, the Islamists, at least in their political speech, can and do pledge allegiances to conflicting forces.

The more interesting element of the Islamists and their supporters is the fact that they don’t seem to advocate specific changes; the only visible banner was on that read Islam is the solution. What sort of Islam and what exactly they are advocating is visibly and deliberately missing, and for a very good reason.

The Lawyer , the Haj ( A man who has gone through Islamic pilgrimage ) Yahya Mohammad Al Saoud , the Islamic Direction party Candidate.

The reason I decided to venture to this event , was because of a troubling banner I saw earlier in the day.

Strategically placed banner out side a church in the East side of the city by the same candidate reads : Stop them , for they are responsible, Islam is the Solution.

It is not a surprise that these Islamists don’t venture much into explaining their aims and ideology, for its real aim is to install a vision of separation, us vs. them. Muslims vs. Christian, Liberal, secular and moderate Muslims vs. militant Muslims. One has to ponder, if these are Muslims broke rank with the Muslim Brotherhood because they viewed the MB as too extreme, what are the visions of those Islamists?

The fact that both featured candidates won is troubling on many aspects, having significant number of citizens believing and aspiring to have better future in some other homeland and running on a religiously militant Islamic platform that promotes exclusion and us vs. the world mindset is not good news for this country.

However there are some serious problems in society that lead to this sort of thinking and application. Newspapers, TV stations, magazine and online websites have failed miserably to scrutinize candidates and their platforms. At the Islamists event, I did not see a single photographer or a journalist, if there were any, I seriously doubt they covered the event with the sort of critical eye needed to fully relate to the voter what their candidates are all about. The incitement of hate and segregation in Jordan is forbidden by the constitution and the media has a huge role to put pressure on the government to adhere to its own laws. I am sure the churchgoers and the priests and nuns of this particular church had seen the banner, and the fact that it was not removed, is mind-boggling.

The fact that these sort of candidates generated considerable support is also indicative of the failure of tribal Jordanians, left parties and East Bankers in general to put forward any sort of inclusive, progressive political platforms that 1) attracts significant following that cuts through social status, religion and background 2) Confronts such agendas with adequate, alternative ones that seek to solve this country’s problems instead of exporting them to dreamland elsewhere. The Government in Jordan has a huge role to play in this process. With very strict controls and restrictions on the activities of political and social activists ,the government, has in effect emptied the political scene from any sort of political opposition, and while Palestine first and Islamists do have a considerable following, the fact is most Jordanians of different backgrounds have not fallen under that spell ( as illustrated by the low voter turn out of 35 % and the fact that even the candidate that received the most votes only got 14000 votes ), however the political scene remains there to be captured by both forces as long as the government policies stand in the way of the formation and development of alternative political, social and economic parties, groups and activists.

Tribal Jordanians ran on platforms that almost entirely rely on the appeal of tribe loyalty, with no clear political, social or economic agendas expect the promise of serving the tribe, this approach is most certainly not an inclusive one nor one that puts the interest of society before ones tribe, that is not to say that there are certain tribal members who won ,are actually not good candidates but because they chose to run on tribal lines, they have very little appeal and support from outside the tribe.

The candidate , with the white head dress , is a tribal leader, he had over 70 banners hanging in his HQ, all announcing loyalty to him, none had any political or social messages.

Supporters of a tribal candidate in Madaba, dancing away to national songs about the army and king, with no obvious indicators of the candidates political view, the dancing crowd were waving posters of the candidates name , only.

Though a highly qualified candidate , the reliance on tribal votes , forced tribal candidates to run on " lame" slogans such as this one: Yes, the nation is for everyone.

Yes its true, all the respect ! only in Jordan would a bunch of words thrown together form a political slogan, he might as well write : Fish, blue, Bart Simpson.

Candidates who ran on some real life agendas have managed to get considerable support that transends tribal and religious boundries . As illustrated by the picture taken by friend of mine .

A christian mother , celebrates her son's election with a muslim friend.

Candidates and platforms like this, ones that offer inclusiveness and focus on every day problem faced by all Jordanians is the only way we, as a society can achieve any sort of reform, the burden is on civil society and the government to nurture and promote such agendas, otherwise the mass appeal of Islamists, tribal leaders and ultra nationalists will continue to grow and capture the minds and imagination of the masses.

For three Fridays before the election, I spent my afternoons with a young group of guys that hail from the lower income areas of the capital, they had launched a face book initiative that entailed them cleaning up a different part of the city each Friday, most of them are also of Palestinian background. Their group on face book has more than 75,000 members, (a telling number when many candidates won by gather 3000 and 4000 votes only) these guys are socially active, and have a decent command of English and social media tools, and a decent level of education. The median age in Jordan is 23 and most of these guys were in that age group. Not a single one of them voted in this last election, mainly because they don’t feel that they’re any candidates that address their problems, concerns and aspirations. When I asked one of them what he thought of the Palestine First and Islamists agenda he replied ” This is all B.S, before we even think of Palestine we need to fix this place up”.

Most Jordanians share this view I think and the attitude of the youth towards elections, candidates and reform in the country is best summarized by the posture and look of this man.

At a rally for a tribal candidate with hundreds of participants dancing to nationalistic songs , the man to me symbolizes the political apathy Jordanians feel.