Saïd Nuseibeh's photography is about connectedness.
Working usually with architectural subjects, he illuminates
the metaphoric and human structures that bridge mankind
with the sublime. He finds inspiration in the private whispers
and charged exultations of radiant energy in venues as diverse
as the American, European, Palestinian and Islamic cultures.
He says, "I wanted to unwrap my camera and communicate
an experience beyond or beneath words, how language is a
radiant evanescent drop in the ocean of sweat that is spun
from the bodies that build literacy, culture and civilization."
Nuseibeh has been awarded a Fulbright which will give him
the luxury to create new photographs of Arab and Islamic
art & architecture. The award is based upon a project
to illuminate the Umayyad legacy in the Levant. The Umayyads
were the first Muslim dynasty to succeed the Righteous Caliphs
and who governed in Damascus from 663-749 c.e. They inaugurated
a novel aesthetic program including design and construction
of the Qubbat al-Sakhra (Dome of the Rock) in Jerusalem.
Umayyad patronage infused the young Islamic civilization
with creative influences from the Sassanian, Byzantine,
Roman and Arab cultures, to name a few. What do these influences
look like in the Umayyad fusion?