Philip Hopper

Phil’s work concerns vernacular image-making that addresses political conflicts. As a Fulbright Scholar based in Ramallah, Palestine, Phil shot and edited the short film The Park in Ramallah, which focuses on a treasured children’s playground in the city of Ramallah, Palestine and depicts rarely-seen images of Palestinian families leading “normal” lives with their children within this green sanctuary, all the while the Israeli-Palestinian conflict rages out of range. The film was selected for the Silver Remi Award at the 2015 WorldFest-Houston film festival and the El Rey Award for Excellence in Documentary Short Filmmaking at the 2015 Barcelona International Film Festival.

A secondary area of Phil’s creative work involves vernacular photography and family snapshots as alternative history. His work takes him again, with a second Fulbright award, to the Middle East, this time to Israel to enhance an existing oral history based project, The Time Tunnel, with photographs, including archival and contemporary portraits. His goal is to link a similar archive at the Palestinian Museum in the West Bank at BIrziet University then juxtapose the images and oral histories chronologically. The overall plan is to find common ground for discussion, exploration, and conflict resolution between Israel and Palestine, and connect these two projects with the Fortepan Iowa (https://fortepan.us) project at UNI. Phil also actively presents his written and photographic work at various conferences, exhibitions, community centers, and academic journals.