Jananne al ani photographs of people

Jananne Al-Ani works in photography, film and video, producing bodies of work that explore conflict, loss and displacement and are informed by her research into 'Orientalism' and often characterised by an interweaving of image and personal testimony.

The video Shadow Sites II () is composed of a series of aerial views intended in part to demonstrate that the desert, which is often presumed to be unoccupied, is in fact inhabited.

The title draws upon a phenomenon familiar to archaeologists: when the sun is at its lowest, shadows render visible the remains of settlements that would otherwise be undetectable. As the artist explains, this revelation of visual information can be seen as metaphor for photography itself:

'Only when the sun is at its lowest do the features on the ground, the archaeological sites and settlements come to light.

Such ‘shadow sites’ when seen from the air, map the latent images held by the landscape’s surface. Much like a photographic pl