First Exhibit of Gaza Photography Publish-Oct. 7 to be Proven in Toronto for One Day Only

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The topic of Rizek Abdel Jawad’s pictures was not all the time destruction. 

Prior to Oct. 7, 2023, Jawad had sought to seize and convey the complexities of every day life in Gaza. His images have been usually vivid and playful, that includes the faces of smiling Palestinian children or a farmer’s colorful bounty. He appeared notably fascinated with the ocean: his Instagram is stuffed with photos of parents diving into the Mediterranean or fishing at sundown. One photo from the spring of 2023 captures a person wakeboarding behind a small blue fishing boat, its driver proudly flying the flag of Palestine. 

But for almost three years now, Jawad’s work — just like the work of so many journalists, writers and artists in Gaze — has been remodeled and consumed by Israel’s genocide. 

Today, images of the ocean have largely been changed by photos of residential buildings decreased to rubble, baby amputees dwelling in sprawling refugee camps, and displaced households looking out desperately for shelter or water; images of a world being erased.

“Gaza is not as the world once knew it,” Rizek wrote solely July 2, which marked the 1,000th day of genocide. 

“The neighbourhoods that once teemed with life have been reduced to rubble, the roads that once connected people now separate them, and the tents that were erected as temporary shelters have become entire cities of fabric, offering no protection from the summer heat, the winter cold, or the bombardment that no longer distinguishes between house and tent, between a sleeping child and a mother waiting for bread or a cup of water.“

Despite this ongoing violence, Jawad’s photography still contains the gentle humanity that distinguished his earlier work; still thrums with the herculean resilience on display on the streets of Gaza each day.

“His photographs linger in the space between devastation and tenderness,” reads an announcement by Canadian Journalists for Justice in Palestine (CJJP), a nationwide collective of journalists elevating consciousness of Israel’s ongoing homicide of journalists in Palestine. “He traces the quiet gestures, fleeting intimacies, and enduring presence of the Palestinian people, who refuse to disappear.”

On Aug. 5, Jawad’s work might be on show at Gallery TPW at 170 St. Helens Ave. in Toronto. Presented by CJJP, the free, one-day occasion can have prints and framed pictures on the market, with all proceeds going to Jawad.

“This is the first photo exhibit featuring a Gaza journalist in Toronto since Oct. 7, [2023]” says Samira Mohyeddin, an unbiased journalist and CJJP member who helped set up the exhibit. “His photographs are harrowing, but really beautiful, and I think that’s what people will see when they come to this exhibit.”

Organizers of the exhibit, titled Lens on Gaza, say they hope it acts as a reminder that those that have been documenting the genocide for almost three years should not merely indifferent observers. Since October 2023, Israel has killed greater than 200 Palestinian journalists in Gaza and in Israeli detention facilities, according to the Committee to Project Journalists (CPJ).

Among these killed was Rizek’s fellow photojournalist Ismail Abu Hatab, who was killed together with greater than three dozen others when Israel’s army dropped a 500-pound bomb on the seaside Al-Baqa Cafe. Abu Hatab’s demise passed off simply weeks after his pictures was displayed at an exhibit in Los Angeles. Titled Between Sky and Sea, the exhibit additionally confirmed in Chicago in summer season 2025. 

Those who’ve survived have suffered nice hardship. 

“These were among the most difficult years of my life,” Rizek tells The Grind by way of e mail. 

“I was forced to live apart from my family as they were displaced multiple times, while I documented scenes of killing, destruction and starvation. On several occasions, I also witnessed and documented the deaths of fellow journalists who were killed while reporting from the field.”

“I chose to continue covering the war because I believed that if I — and other journalists — failed to document what was happening, my people’s story and suffering would never reach the rest of the world,” he provides. 

In latest months, Gaza has light from the headlines, overtaken by tales concerning the U.S.-Israeli battle on Iran and different geopolitical occasions. 

Israel and its allies, together with the U.S. and Canada, have used this chance to “whitewash or launder their crimes of the past three years”, Mohyeddin says. 

“The Biden administration, in particular, is in this sort of ‘shoot and cry’ mode right now,” she provides, citing recent article that means that American officers now remorse sure choices that enabled the genocide in Gaza. 

Meanwhile, Israel’s assault on Gaza continues. The Israeli army has killed almost 1,200 Palestinians, together with a whole bunch of kids, in Gaza since a ceasefire settlement passed off in Oct. 2025, in accordance with the Gaza Health Ministry.

Working as a photojournalist in Gaza, Mohyeddin insists, stays extremely harmful.

“These exhibits are not statements about what has happened, but what continues to happen,” Mohyeddin says.

“It’s about Rizek’s dogged insistence that the genocide has not stopped … and it’s also a refusal. He constantly tells me: ‘we’re not going anywhere.’”

Lens on Gaza takes locations at Gallery TPW on Wednesday, Aug. 5, between 4:00 PM and 10 :00 PM.

The exhibit is offered by Canadian Journalists for Justice in Palestine, Canadian Independent Media Fund, Oxfam Canada, and On The Line Media. Curated by Darlene Huynh.