Palestin in Print is a project launched by Tazim Hamid. Shortly after visiting Palestine in February 2012 as a volunteer to plant olive trees, Hamid’s published photo book, Roots Run Deep: Life in Occupied Palestine by Hamde Abu Rahma, a photographer and activist who was featured in the Oscar-nominated film 5 Broken Cameras.
Palestine in Print is based loosely on a micro financing model; Hamid invests a small amount of money to produce blank greeting cards, which are then sold to raise money towards producing the books. Palestine in Print then helps to produce, design, edit and sell the books on behalf of the Palestinian artist.
The Palestinian artist then keeps all profits their book make, with only the printing costs of the book being paid from those profits.
The money is then used towards the next printing order, thus continuing the cycle.
Nearly two years since its founding, Palestine in Print now has three further photo collections to its name: Palestine: Children of Bil’in; Occupied Palestine through My Lens, both authored by Haitham Al Khatib; and Palestine: Children of Gaza, by Ahmed Salama.
Aside from the photobooks, Palestine in Print has also published a collection of free verse poems, Prison for the Innocent authored by Abdul Hamid.
Tazim Hamid hopes to also produce collections of short stories and poetry by Palestinian writers as the project grows to include more genres and to further showcase Palestinian talents.
Currently, Palestine in Print has three further publications in the pipeline: Fishermen of Gazaby Fadi Thabet, released this month; The Kufiya: Digital art from Gaza and Sunsets of Bil’in. Further information on Palestine in Print can be found at www.palestineinprint.com.
