This essay is a culmination of a twenty-two-year-long process of gathering, digitizing, and engaging a repository of photographs in the Palestinian refugee camp of Burj al-Shamali, southeast of Tyre, Lebanon. The larger project that emerged from years of collaboration, titled “Frictional Conversations,” combines research, conversational practice, and performative interventions to expand the concept of the photographic image by dematerializing and rematerializing it in new forms. This essay reflects a frictional conversation among the authors that took place near Burj al-Shamali in November 2023. During the conversation, the authors revisited their collaborative work and specific collections of images; they also discussed their contribution to understanding the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people, as well as their collective responsibilities to care for the digital repository.
