Back and forth across the Mediterranean Sea, coastal cultures intersect inspire and influence, yet they are shot through with new geopolitical realities that divide them. In this project, I have chosen various points on the Mediterranean to photograph artisan work, which have on some level has been influenced by other coastal cultures.

The work is reflective; we go on a journey to places where colours, sound, music and tradition come from the same source of inspiration: the sea. I explore cultural resemblances between two geographically disconnected places that in the past may have had a connection.

Artisan production, such as the handmade paper in Amalfi, Italy, was invented by the Chinese but brought to this coastal region by the Arab world. Beautiful and unique paper is being produced even today, for the Vatican.

The ceramics of Vietri su Mare, Italy, are imbued with the colours of the regional coastline, using geometric patterns found in Islamic art. In this section, I focus on the ceramics of Rosaura Pinto whose mother came from the Netherlands and who fell in love with the coastal region and married into a local family. In each section, I also look at how each artisanal production was inspired by the landscape.

The jewellery of the Kabyle region of Algeria goes back to the expulsion of Jews and Arabs to North Africa after the re- conquista by Christian Spain in the late 15th Century. The devastation wrought on the people who produced these objects was catastrophic. Jewish-Muslim culture in Algeria was impacted by the ravages of colonialism - and by a previous interaction with the Muslim community that was lost after Algerian independence, when once again this group was forced into exile. This loss and the link to their treasured skills of producing a unique Jewish Arab culture, survives today in their jewellery. This type of jewellery now forms part of the Amazigh identity and is continued in the hilltop villages of Kabyle, such as Benni Yenni ( Ath Yenni).

In the 1970's, my brother came back from Jerusalem to Ireland where he had been working as an archaeologist. He brought with him various samples of the local culture, including a magnificent Palestinian Thobe from Bethlehem.

Embroidery is an integral part of this Mediterranean culture and even today the technique used, described as tatreez, survives in zones of conflict.

Inspired by the beauty of this Thobe when set against the terrible reality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I went to photograph Palestinian embroidery in November, 2024 in the West Bank at Bethlehem, and in Jerusalem as well as in the workshops of exiled Palestinians in Jordan. As is all artisan work, this skill and craft is practiced in all regions of ancient Palestine-Israel and Jordan. A disputed land. For those in exile to sew is to survive the erasure of identity, the disconnect with the homeland and to reflect the colours of a region.

The clothing of Palestinian women has deep historical roots, influenced by the Canaanites to the Ottomans and has evolved to reflect the diversity of this region during the Ottoman Empire, as well as a century marked by settlement, shifting borders and resistance.

Helen Sheehan 2025