Qumra was an idea initiated by Nisreen Tahhan and Sari Tarazi, both deeply fascinated with film and darkroom photography. Their vision was to build a large camera obscura—an immersive dark room that could reflect the city’s landscape in reverse. This city, Ramallah, is increasingly becoming a mirror of the identity-less architecture imposed by limited budgets, restricted resources, and narrow urban possibilities available in Palestinian cities across the West Bank.

The dark room became a camera—one where visitors entered to peek through a small hole and see the city upside down. It was the continuation of a photography and darkroom workshop held in Ramallah, where participants developed and printed images that were later turned into postcards.

The structure, unexpectedly, sparked interactions we didn’t anticipate. It revealed a more complex picture of Ramallah—not just as a city, but as a political sphere shaped by individuals, institutions, and competing powers. We clashed with the landowner, and with the police. Both tensions eventually calmed once they accepted the installation as temporary and framed as an “art project.”

Each workshop and experience in the Our Street project taught us something profound about the land of Palestine and its people—insights that no lecture, paper, or art school could ever fully convey.