DescriptionThis photograph depicts a Palestinian woman wearing an early twentieth-century traditional dress (thobe) while walking through a vineyard. The dress is regionally consistent with the dress traditions of Beit Dajan. Known as a naʿānī dress, this style takes its name from the village of Al-Naʿānī in the Yaffa region. The chest panel, or qabbeh, as well as the sleeves, reveal densely embroidered motifs iconic of the coastal region, using both cross stitch and couching stitch patterns typical of dresses during the 1920s onward. Although Bandak staged this photograph in a vineyard, Yaffa was historically renowned for its citrus groves, particularly the sweet, thick-skinned Shamouti orange developed by Palestinian farmers during the nineteenth century. By portraying the woman in the traditional dress of the fellāḥī (person of the land), Bandak pays homage to the agricultural traditions of historic Palestine, where villagers comprised more than 75 percent of the population living in over 800 villages during the early twentieth century. Many of the villages in historic Palestine were ancient towns that were deeply rooted in the region’s agricultural history. This photograph is part of an untitled set that includes a companion image depicting the same woman from the back while picking grapes (object no. 2022.156). Authored by Wafa Ghnaim