Isabel de la Cruz - Shahwan was born in 1963 in Germany to a German mother and a Peruvian father . She obtained a BA in history from the University of Virginia , and an MA in Arab Studies from Georgetown University . She took her first formal instruction in photography at U.Va. and set up her own darkroom in Germany.

She worked in Sudan and Egypt with NBC News , and acquired experience in news photograpy . She then worked as a freelance jounalist for Deutsche-Welle TV , and as a photo editor for the European Press Agency in Frankfurt . Isabel also attended two courses at the Maine photographic workshops to fine tune her skills in black and white photography and in printing processes . Isabel has focused on photography in the last two years , her first project was the publication of a 1996 black and white calendar entitled Palestiniana containing photographs of palestinians , the West Bank and Gaza from a non-news perspective. At the same time, she completed a slide and music show by the same title which was screened at the Wasiti Arts Center in April 1996. She held her first solo exhibit in Jerusalem in May 1996. Of her work she says: "I wanted to crysllise all the positive aspects of Palestinian culture, tradition, and history through consciously beautiful photography as a counter-balance to the grim realities of the day".

Crosses in the Armenian section of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher

Jars

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