Born Of Sand And Sun

During the 1948 war in Palestine, many Palestinians were forced to leave their homes. The Bedouin tribes of the desert suffered the same fate, but their close link with the desert – the heart of their culture – could not be severed. Today, however, the number of Bedouin living in their original territories is dwindling, and many of them are gradually losing their distinct identity.
Born of Sand and Sun is not a conventional description of the life of a nomadic people, nor does it attempt to capture the current suffering caused by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is a visual metaphor for the gradual disappearance of these brave desert people – all that remains are sand-covered fragments, which they themselves will become over time. For more than three years, Petra Bašnáková lived among Bedouin communities to better understand their way of life and to discover the beauty and simplicity of their existence, as well as their deep-rooted love of the desert. The book follows two paths: the Bedouin’s journey through life and Ms Bašnáková’s journey to get to know them and be accepted by the Bedouin community.

Petra Bašnáková, originally from Czechoslovakia, studied at Tomas Bata University in Zlin. During her studies, she did an internship at the Bezalel Academy of arts and design in Jerusalem, where she began work on her project about the Palestinian Bedouin. This series has won several awards, including the Slovak Press Photo, the Sony World Awards and the Ian Parry Scholarship. Her work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and festivals, including Photo London and Photo Israel in Tel Aviv. She is currently preparing a solo exhibition at the Leica Gallery and the Josef Sudek Studio in Prague. Her photographs of Bedouins have been published in FOTO magazine and Der Spiegel. In 2023, she became a member of “Women Photograph”.