Collection: Megumi Yoshitake: Photo London Fair 2024
Megumi Yoshitake - Bedouin of the Syrian desert
Photographer born in Tokyo in 1965
Graduated from the Tokyo College of Photography, Broadcast and Journalism Division.
Yoshitake first visited Syria on her own in 1987. When she got married, in 2001, she spent her honeymoon there, and in 2004 when her son was just sixteen months old, the family travelled to Syria all together. They returned every year. Megumi writes about how she ‘spent part of every year [between 1995 and 2011] living with a Bedouin family in the Syrian desert.’ The ‘Bedouin (from the Arabic badija, or "people who live in the wasteland?) are nomads of Arab ethnicity. In fact, "Arab" was at one time synonymous with "Bedouin," and even today the Bedouin people in the Syrian desert proudly refer to themselves as Arab. Most of them speak Arabic as their native language. They live throughout the deserts of the Middle East but are centred around the Arabian Peninsula and particularly in the Syrian desert, an inland area that includes Palmyra, another World Heritage Site. Raising sheep, goats, and camels, they live a nomadic lifestyle informed by a tribalism that stresses the importance of direct blood relationships.
Yoshitake spoke no Arabic and no English, but despite the language and cultural barriers, Megumi fell in love with the nomad life, and chose to integrate it into the way she raised her own family. Megumi Yoshitake’s story is interesting because it presents an unusual perspective, which is usually portrayed through the lens and travel journals of white European men.
In her text, ‘Notions of Syria’, Yoshitake emphasises the emotions stirred by the Syrian people and landscape. She mentions its ‘rich culture, beautiful nature, delicious food, [a sense of peaceful safety].’ She says it felt ‘safer than Japan which is known for its safety. ‘Most importantly, she mentions, the people’. They are filled with hospitality, with care for [one another, they] spend time with their families and overflow with kindness. There are many cultural world heritages in Syria] but Yoshitake believes ‘the people there are the real treasure’.
