The 2003 invasion of Iraq marked the beginning of a war that officially lasted nearly a decade. At the end of 2010, a wave of protests irrupted in the Middle East labeled “The Arab Spring” by the Western world. These events had flared up a series of deadly conflicts and civil wars, leading to extensive regime changes and resulting in great transformations that are prospect to formulate a new regional order. This seminar will tackle the ways in which visual strategies and tactics, introduced through Photography (still and video), constitute a major force in shaping violent protests and struggles. We will explore the manners in which photography is put to use by those in power, as a means of control and even as an instrument of torture. At the same time, we will observe how attempts to resist oppressive regimes fabricate calls for change that are not only verbal and textual but are also depictions that endeavor to mediate, for a variety of motives and in diverse ways, the aspirations for achieving social justice. We will inspect the methods in which those associated with the protests throughout the area, seek to create local and regional social cohesion, using imagery, and to trace the various visual languages that the protests adopted. In addition, we will figure out the prominence that 'anonymity,' as a means of representation, had acquired. The seminar will also focus on artworks in the fields of Photography, Video Art, and Documentary Film that responded to these events. Through regarding visual images created in the context of the political circumstances, and observing  artworks, the seminar will help develop a complex viewpoint on the region’s geopolitical trends and changes.