From Lily’s View is an exhibition curated from select photographs from the work of the late Lillian “Lily” I. Bandak, a well known Palestinian American photojournalist.
Wanting to connect with her cultural heritage, Bandak reconstructed portraiture in dress styles from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In this exhibition, Bandak’s work serves to display her connection and reverence to regional identities of Palestinian women through traditional dress design. Bandak’s place in the world is inseparable from the story of modern Palestine. Born in Amman, Jordan, in July 1948, she came of age in a world shaped by the consequences of al-Nakba, which transformed Palestinian life through the loss of homeland, displacement, and restrictions on movement.
In 1982, the massacre at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps during the Lebanese Civil War resulted in the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians. Sent by Newsweek to document the aftermath, Bandak witnessed the devastation firsthand. She later recalled that “all forms of life” in the camps had been massacred. She reflected on this assignment as a turning point in her life, believing that the trauma contributed to the onset of the illness later diagnosed as Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in 1984. Although MS increasingly limited her mobility, she continued photographing with a custom designed camera for her wheelchair and traveling with a portable ramp. Bandak became the first Palestinian photographer to be featured at the White House. Although much of her life’s photographic work was later lost in a fire in 2012, the surviving images presented in From Lily’s View remain authentic prints and are among the last of their kind.
Bandak’s legacy extends beyond photography. Her work stands as a testament to the power of perseverance, memory, and self-representation. Like Palestinians who continue to build lives, sustain communities, and safeguard their cultural heritage despite the displacement and fragmentation caused by al-Nakba, Bandak refused to allow circumstances to determine her place in the world, despite her frustrations of limitations of her wheelchair. Through the images she left behind, she offers a vision of resilience, dignity, and belonging that continues to inspire today.
George Harb is the director of Exhibitions and Programs and is a second-generation Palestinian American independent artist, digital archivist, curator, and community historian based in Washington, D.C.,.
