Judge this book by its cover: Photographer asks readers to look beyond Arab stereotypes

Tamara Abdul Hadi says she's felt displaced.

The documentary photographer was born in the United Arab Emirates to Iraqi parents who immigrated to Montreal in the mid-90s.

After graduating from Concordia University with a fine arts degree, she found herself picking up a camera more frequently.

"Photography gave me a mode of expression," she says.

Abdul Hadi's upcoming photobook, “Picture an Arab Man,” captures images from her many trips back to the Middle East.

"When I first created this project, it was a reaction to how Arab men are portrayed in mainstream media," she explains. "A terrorist, an oppressor of women, and I grew up as an Arab woman with an Arab father with many wonderful, kind men around me."

That's what Abdul Hadi hopes her readers will see; the humanity of her subjects, rather than just ethnicity and skin tones.

Halifax’s Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 noticed.

She's been named its Artist in Residence for 2022.

Abdul Hadi plans to photograph and create portraits of first-generation Canadians who've also settled in Montreal.

Once completed, her images will be projected outside the museum's World of Yousuf Karsh exhibition throughout the summer.

Abdul Hadi sees parallels with Karsh through their shared experience "in terms of us coming from somewhere else," she says.

Karsh immigrated through Pier 21 as an Armenian refugee in the 1920s.

He's captured stunning images of some of the 20th century’s most notable figures like Muhammad Ali, Winston Churchill, Nova Scotia's Portia White and many more.

"They are very beautiful magical portraits, regardless of who they are, right?" Abdul Hadi says.

Abdul Hadi hopes readers will discover a similar magic in her men, and perhaps challenge their own assumptions.

"Picture an Arab Man" will be released in July.