Event Proposal for Jordan Embassy in Japan

Unique and Outstanding: Jordan’s World Heritage

Introduction:

I would like to propose a photographic exhibition with an opening night and a VIP book giveaway. It was briefly discussed that next year is the anniversary of Jordanian-Japanese ties and arranging something like this would make for a wonderful celebratory event.

In October 2022, HRH Princess Dana Firas and I published a wonderful photography book that explores Jordan’s world heratage sites (20 sites in total including listed and tentative), prior to that in December 2018 I published an extensive photography exploration of over 120 sites throughout Jordan.

Additionally in the last few years I have arranged and hosted a number of exhibitions and talks in Jordan and internationally, including a special evening at the Jordanian embassy Washington DC.

Exhibition:

The proposed Exhibition will consist of between 10-30 large panorama images (120cmx50cm) and supported by 20-60 (60x45cm) smaller images. I suggested this range as it all depends on the space and how we can agree on the logistics as well as what exhibiting space can hold.

There are several means of presenting these images:
1. The standard practice is to print and frame the images, in this case I use rag paper and have the images laser printed in a specialist print lab, in terms of framing, my go to is low cost black frame (5m) with 5cm white boarder. this method is the most costly.

2. Printing and mounting on foam also works well, but lack of framing brings down the ‘presage’ of the exhibition. but this is much cheaper and also easer to manage logistically.

In the case of the above two options, I can oversee printing in Jordan and bring the prints with me to Japan in December for framing/ mounting that way I can ensure

3.Digital Exhibition, this is my current go to and most impactful method of exhibiting my work, it can also be the easiest to organise logistically as screens can be rented for the duration and returned afterwards, additionally we can present as many as 200 images on them via a slideshow (depending on the number).

I would recommend a combination of points 2 & 3, 4 large commercial LCD Screens (anything above 55” Screens Sony, LG, or Samsung) to display the panoramas and then have the standard prints on the side.

Talk:

The special opening evening can be a cocktail reception, with a one hour talk (including introductions and a Q&A) introducing and familiarising the sites and their history to the audience.

I tentatively spoke to HRH Princess Dana last year about this idea and she mentioned that she would definitely join if her schedule permits, if she does then she should be added to the talk.

Book Giveaway:

The initial print run of the books was kindly covered by USAID/SCHEPP, and so there is a large quantity for giveaway, I believe we can arrange with the ICOMOS office to supply a quantity for shipping to the event, the single book weighs 1.9KG and come in boxes of 5’s.