Palestinian photojournalist Wahaj Bani Moufleh recently posted a video of himself photographing a man and a schoolgirl in the West Bank.
Across the screen are the words:
“THE STORY IS ON THE OTHER SIDE.”
It’s an interesting choice of words because the video shows something the finished photograph normally doesn’t.
Bani Moufleh is right up against the razor wire, deliberately shooting through its coils.
For a picture editor, that’s the story.
The people haven’t suddenly become enclosed by the wire. The photographer has moved until the wire encloses them inside his frame.
That’s a perfectly legitimate photographic technique. It’s also a powerful one. Razor wire in the foreground comes with its own visual vocabulary: confinement, restriction, imprisonment. Put a child behind it and the picture barely needs a caption.
Bani Moufleh isn’t an obscure Instagram photographer. He is a member of Activestills, whose own website says photography is a vehicle for social change and describes the collective as part of the “popular struggle against the Israeli occupation.”
His work is also distributed by Middle East Images and has appeared through AFP/Getty Images. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) identifies him as a freelance photographer working with Middle East Images, noteworthy in light of HonestReporting’s recent investigation into how CPJ classifies Palestinian journalists.
Recommended reading: Audit of CPJ Gaza Journalists Database Shows Over Half Linked to Terrorism
His own description of his work is revealing too.
Speaking to FOTODOK about becoming a photographer, Bani Moufleh said he decided he could “fight back in another way.” Later in the interview, he was clearer still:
“My work is part of the struggle.”
Bani Moufleh has already given us something more useful: a glimpse of the photographer at work.
He tells us the story is on the other side.
His video shows us how he put it there.
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© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025
