Mohammed Alzaanoun has been documenting life and death in Gaza for over 20 years. His own home in Gaza City was targeted by Israeli airstrikes and he had to pull his children out from under the rubble of what was once his home. He also received direct threats from Israeli forces ordering him to stop his reporting.
But despite the risks, threats, displacement and horrors around him, the photojournalist continued his work. Mohammed Alzanoon was awarded the Most Resilient Photographer Award by Free Press Unlimited in 2024. He was recently nominated for a BAFTA Crafts Award (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) for his Storyville documentary Life and Death in Gaza.
His work as a photojournalist in Gaza has always been fraught with danger, including being injured in an Israeli drone strike when he was young. Since February 2024, Alzanoon has been a Safe Haven Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS), where his research focuses on himself and his family, to make the trauma of occupation and war visible.
The Safe Haven Fellowship offers scientists, writers, artists and journalists from conflict areas the opportunity to continue their work here in safety.

During this talk Mohammed Alzanoon will show his work and speak about his experience as a photojournalist and resident of Gaza.