Karimeh Abbud was a Palestinian professional photographer and artist who was born in 1893. She lived and worked in Lebanon and Palestine in the first half of the 20th century.

She developed a passion for photography in the year 1913 in Bethlehem where she was living with her parents at that time. Her father, who was a pastor, gifted her with a camera on her 17th birthday. The first photos she ever took were of her family, friends and the landscape in Bethlehem. As for her first ever signed photo, it was in October 1919.

Postcard of Cana in Galilee, by Karimeh Abbud

Karimeh Abbud, who is most known as the “Lady Photographer”, studied Arabic Literature at the American University of Beirut.

By the 1930s she had become a professional photographer. There was a particularly high demand for her studio work in weddings and portraits, and she stamped her work during that period in Arabic and English with the words: “Karimeh Abbud – Lady Photographer – كريمة عبود: مصورة شمس”. In the mid-1930s, she began offering hand-painted copies of studio photographs.

Colored postcard of the River Jordan, by Karimeh Abbud

Karimeh Abbud passed away in Nazareth in the year 1955.