Ziada Fana is an Eritrean-American photographer, born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and Asmara, Eritrea. Based in Oakland, CA, her work centers around human experiences and identity. This conversation came about after Ziada had to reconsider her contribution to this 10th anniversary edition due to challenges brought about by a repetitive strain injury. She opened up to Q-zine about how her physical challenges have pushed her to invent more creative ways of being, both in her body and in the world, and about what she is learning and unlearning along the way.
Initially we talked about your project as a self-portrait of your hands, but as more ideas came to you, after you had to take a break from work to rest your hands, you realized that you’d need to use your hands to edit the photos that you were thinking about taking. Yes and I think that part of me was trying to follow through on my commitment, still do something but without being impacted. As I considered options, I was excited by the possibility of setting photos on a timer thinking it wouldn’t require me having to hold, or click or, do anything with the
camera that requires my hands. I thought it would be a good experiment to see photos I'm able to come up with using a different method. But then, as creativity comes in whatever ways, I started to have all these different ideas, many of which I shut down. Ultimately, everything that I was thinking of required me having to go in and edit these photos. I could potentially do it if I found somebody who was an editor to do it for me. But that's not an option, the final images wouldn’t be self-portraits.
Issue 14 • 34
