MEITAL DOR | Sahman

MEITAL DOR | Sahman

“My encounter with Sahman’s family convinced me that I can observe reality without judgment, reach exposed and intimate situations, and confront topics/taboos that I want to focus on and share with the world.
– Meital Dor

Three-year-old Sahman Alchoush, from Halhul in Hebron, was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma at the age of two. While looking for real-life intimate stories to share the world with, I had the privileged to meet “The Road to Recovery,” a non-profit Israeli organization that helps transport Palestinian patients, especially children, from the checkpoints to the hospitals in Israel.
“The Road to Recovery” assisted me in finding this special family and helped me accompanying and documenting Sahman during the last weeks of his life while Sahman stayed at Hospice in “Tel Hashomer” Hospital. And later on to continue the documentary project with the family at their home in Hebron during their days of grief.
Sahman passed away on July 11th, 2019.
He was the eldest son of his parents Jaffar and Tasneem, and a big brother to little Bissan. Touching his parent’s eyelids with his tiny fingers reassured him greatly during the difficult moments of pain.
The Family’s Documentation won the open call “Transformation” at the 8th International Photography Festival “PHOTO IS:RAEL”, and was shown at the leading exhibition during November 2020, a period of the Pandemic and closures.

Thanks to the festival, I got to meet Sahman’s parents once again when they received a one-time permit to enter Israel and see their son’s documentation at the exhibition in the center of Tel Aviv.
On the exhibition’s special day, Jaffar, the father, had a chance to visit the sea for the second time in his life, and Tasneem was excited by the little stones that can decorate her flower pots in her garden.
As they sadly had to depart again, I raised my camera and took one last picture of Jaffar and Tasneem. In my view, this is a closure to the first picture, in Tarkumia checkpoint, where Sahman left his home for the last time carried by his father.
Sahman’s parents and I are friends to this day. Jaffar once said that I became a family member. Thanks to our acquaintance, they had the privilege of preserving memories, sharing the pain of their son’s illness, and softening the difficulty of being alone in Israel in such painful moments.
They recently gave birth to a newborn, Isaac, and I’m very happy for them.

Meital Dor

I was born in 1976 in Israel. I found my way into photography in my early forties. In the beginning, I was drawn to light, color, texture, and materials, and most of all, I had an incredible and inexplicable urge to present the truth to the world.
Through my personal and social photography projects, I try to distill “the being” of the person standing in front of me. It all began when my family and I went on a three-week trip to New Zealand. Two parents three children in a small caravan, and it was clear to me that I would document New Zealand differently. No more postcards of blue and green landscapes, but rather the density and routine of the caravan life, the density of my family. I had a great urge to present reality just as it is.
My first meaningful documentation was of Sahman Alchoush, a 3-year-old Palestinian toddler from Hebron who died of Neuroblastoma.

Later on, this documentation also won an international competition in the “Transformation” category at The 8th International Photography Festival PHOTO IS:RAEL, in Kikar Hamediba, Tel Aviv-Israel. My encounter with Sahman’s family increased my determination in having the ability to withstand a complex and painful human situation. I asked for photography topics that are meaningful for exposing them to the world.
I mainly try to focus and cover stories of social and personal issues through intimate and personal stories of people I meet. (Such as documenting stories from a Mental Health Hospital, or a respirator boy from Kiryat Malachi in Israel) through these delicate stories, I discover hidden parts of myself as a human and as a creator.

Read the full article in Lens Magazine Issue #80