PROFILE Images - Courtesy of the artist. Writer - Emma Warburton, arts writer and researcher.
Myriam Boulos: Sunday Companionship, celebration and sisterhood Based in Beirut, Lebanese photographer Myriam
Under the Kafala system, a domestic worker cannot
Boulos uses her camera to understand her city,
leave their job, resign or leave the country without
its people and her place among them. Her work
their sponsor’s permission. Questioning the terms
in photography typically engages with recurrent
of their contract means risking deportation. As a
themes and subject matter. Through her images,
result, the Kafala system perpetuates situations
Boulos reveals her continuous interest in the
of abuse and exploitation. Boulos’s series Sunday
representation of women and minorities, and the
seeks to liberate these women from the labeling and
experience of subcultures existing on the social
oppression imposed on them by the Kafala system,
fringes of Beirut. The artist also tends to work in
by capturing them in the few hours of freedom they
a photographic approach that is distinctive and
enjoy each week - those brief yet precious moments
aesthetically bold.
in which they can be themselves.
These motifs are exemplified in the series Sunday,
Domestic workers are typically expected to be seen
which follows domestic workers from Ethiopia,
and not heard. They are the figures that tiptoe in the
Madagascar, Sri-Lanka and the Philippines on
background as they tend to the lives of the ‘more
their only day off, Sunday. For a few hours on a
elite.’ But in the making of Sunday, Boulos draws
Sunday, the presence of these domestic workers in
our attention to these women and acknowledges
Beirut is visible, and in certain neighbourhoods the
them as the focus of her artistic vision.
atmosphere is briefly but noticeably changed. “I
I always saw them as representatives of both social and political struggles. I wanted to photograph them outside their work, as women, and not as ‘cleaning women’
always saw them as representatives of both social
The images composing Sunday are bold and
and political struggles. I wanted to photograph them
colourful. Boulos works in a distinct photographic
outside their work, as women, and not as ‘cleaning
style combining high contrast, sharp focus and
women’ as they are so often referred to by my fellow
dynamic compositions. The aesthetic emphasizes
citizens in Lebanon.”
the joyous nature of these weekly meetings
documents one day in the lives of foreign domestic
between workers. Scenes of women dancing,
workers employed under Beirut’s Kafala system, and
For the creation of Sunday, Boulos takes an interest
worshipping and gathering outside are rendered
therefore by default the series comments on the
in these women as they enjoy their free time, and
in vibrant colours, giving the images a playful and
injustice, discrimination and exploitation that remain
documents the places they go to escape the
positive quality, and highlighting the values of
prevalent in the city’s social and political structures
everyday reality of the Kafala system.
companionship, celebration and sisterhood that
today. But more accurately Sunday is a series about
are at the core of each worker’s Sunday experience.
community and triumph over oppression. Gathering
‘Kafala’ means sponsor in Arabic. It is a system used
in laughter and celebration, the women of Sunday
in the Gulf region and the Middle East to manage
Boulos often uses her camera as a tool for engaging
are captured by Boulos in moments of bliss and
migrant workers. Every migrant domestic worker is
in social and political dialogue, a common thread
belonging as they rise above their circumstances
required to have a sponsor to legally live in Lebanon.
found throughout her photography practise. Sunday
and forget, for a day, that they are anything but free.
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