March 2005
The Bedouin Tribes of Petra
Photographs by Vivian Ronay
When “Petra: Lost City of Stone” opens at Calvin College in April, visitors will be
transported back nearly 2000 years to the ancient city of Petra. To complement this
historical perspective, a small exhibition of photographs by Washington, D.C. based
photographer Vivian Ronay, will give insight into the Petra of today.
Over the years a very small number of families of Bedouin people known as the Bedoul herders and farmers, took up residence in tents and modified caves scattered around the
city’s spectacular rock-cut monuments.
In 1985 Petra was declared a World Heritage Site. Anticipating that tourism would soar and
concerned with the site’s preservation, Jordanian authorities worked with the Bedoul to
relocate them to the newly constructed village of Umm Sayhun, a few kilometers from
Petra. Since then, the Bedoul have undergone numerous changes to their lifestyle. Some
have shifted completely to a market economy in support of the tourism and archaeological
work at Petra, while others still follow traditional ways. These images document the
adaptive lifestyles of these Bedouin peoples as they undergo transition amid the
“rediscovery” of Petra by archaeologists, preservationists, and tourists.
On display are a selection of Ronay’s photographs from 1988 to 1992 and from more recent
visits to Petra in 2001 and 2003. Vivian Ronay, who has worked for the Washington Times
and, since 1994, as a freelance editorial and commercial photographer, has documented the
lives of the Bedoul in Petra since 1986. The White House News Photographers Association
awarded Ronay the project grant award in 2003. Ronay was also awarded the Sam Abell
scholarship of the Santa Fe Photography workshop in 2001 for this work.
For more of Ronay's photographs at Petra, see www.petraphotos.com.
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For Release: March 2005
Calvin College
Phil deHaan
Director of Media Relations
616.526.6475
deph@calvin.edu
Professional Marketing
Diane M. Jones
President
616.949.9104
pmconsulting@aol.com
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Petra: Lost City of Stone is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York, and the
Cincinnati Art Museum, and presented under the patronage of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah
of Jordan, Petra is the first major cultural collaboration between Jordan and the United States. Air
transportation generously provided by Royal Jordanian.
In Grand Rapids a lead, local sponsor is Huntington Bank - West Michigan.
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