Annie Sakkab, We Used to Watch the Rivers Go By
In Jordan, water is not only a physical resource; it also represents memory – embodied in stone, earth and song. “What started as a curiosity about a resource,” Palestinian-Jordanian photographer Sakkab (born 1969) remembers, “became a deeper excavation of my own history and heritage, a search for roots in a land shaped by centuries of change and deprivation. This is not merely a study of water; it is a story about people.”
Index
Detail
|
Image x
17 Images
01
Just a few kilometres from the Syrian border, Syrian refugee Um Mazen (24) bathes her child, Huwaijeh, Jordan, 2018
02
Mohammad Al Zawaideh (71) crosses the harsh Wadi Rum Desert, which paradoxically sits above a massive water resource, 2025
03
Ali Al Shorfat (26) grazes his sheep near one of the Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) sites in Azraq, 2026
04
A view of the town of Azraq reveals part of its former spring area; now a barren, dried-out landscape, 2025
05
Abeer Ghuzlan (26) prepares a meal. A water filter protects the household from the area’s saline groundwater, Azraq 2025
06
While playing, Risal Ghuzlan (7) imitates a YouTube beauty tutorial, using saline and mineral-heavy tap water, Azraq 2025
07
On the family farm, Hussein Tarrabeh (73) prepares olive wood for a barbecue, Azraq 2025
08
The decommissioned Abu Tazza well is located south of the city of Azraq, 2025
09
Ismail Owaidat teaches professionals from finance and technology sectors traditional ways of cultivating native plants, Ain Ghazal 2025
10
Mostafa Al Bnayyan (21) scatters seeds across arid land that depends on rain-fed agriculture, Jbayya 2026
11
A family picnics on the dried mudflats of the Azraq Wetland, 2025
12
On the family farm, Jihad Ahmed Shawqi Sheeshani (63) teaches his daughter how to make cheese and other dairy products, Azraq 2025
13
Ain Musa, knowns as Moses’s Spring, which emerges near Petra, is a popular destination for both tourists and locals, Wadi Musa 2025
14
Maisa Al Bnayyan (15) and Mona Al Bnayyan (11) pose for a portrait, Jbayya 2026
15
Water scarcity disproportionately affects low-income urban neighbourhoods and refugee camps, Jerash Palestinian Refugee Camp, 2023
16
Saddam Al Twaisi (36) often commutes for several hours to his family’s olive farm to help with irrigation, Wadi Musa 2026
17
Through music, Chechen women play an important role in preserving their cultural heritage, Azraq 2025
0102030405060708091011121314151617