Projects
The Beirut Master Plan
2024
The objective of this project is to highlight how the Beirut highways, built in the 1950s as part of the Beirut Master Plan to make the city more accessible to Lebanese citizens (due to tourism, banking, and its prominent harbor and funded by car companies), have over time and through the civil war created isolated pockets of communities across the city.
Neighborhoods were split due to the fear and violence of the civil war, and different communities found themselves separated by physical barriers such as highways, buffer zones, and empty lots.
One example of this division is the contrast between Mar Mikhael and Karantina. Another can be seen along Independence Street in Ashrafieh.
Along the Euphrates
2021
This project focuses on rural Syrian refugees. Their villages have been completely devastated due to the war. The populations were forced to flee their homes and consequently settled in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon because of its proximity, climate, and the similarity of its population’s lifestyle to theirs.
Children who live in the camps do not have any occupation. Their parents work in the Bekaa fields while the grandparents stay at the camps with no occupation to fill their time. While the elderly seem to be waiting for the war to end to return home, the children do not exhibit attachment to their homeland and end up having no sense of identity.
The aim of this project is to create a bond between the grandparents and grandchildren and consequently transmit the knowhow that defines their identity. This agricultural heritage is in danger since it is the last of its kind in the area and the world.
Most of these communities lived along and beyond the Euphrates River, which splits Syria into urban and rural areas. Another objective is to create workshops for the concerned youth along with Lebanese children from the villages where the camps are located. These workshops focus on mud building, crop pairing, old irrigation techniques, seasonal cycles, and more, with the hope of creating a sense of belonging for this young war-torn generation.
Les Salons de Beyrouth
2018
I have always been grateful for spending part of my childhood at my grandparents’ home in Ras Beirut, specifically in Hamra, the last mixed neighborhood in Beirut and Lebanon in general. I missed this diversity elsewhere, and I always wanted to show how interesting it was, even though I did not know how at first.
One day, as I was walking along Lebanon Street, I was invited in for coffee by an elderly man. A photo I took of his living room, among others, meant a lot to me because it revealed everything in its intimacy, from family members and social class to the design of the apartment.
That was the moment I decided to document over seventy living rooms in Ras Beirut, a project funded by AUB's Beirut Neighborhood Initiative. The project was complemented by a 360 degree audio recording to help the viewer better understand the architecture of each space while looking at the photographs.
Beit El Boustany
In-Residence Exhibit 2017/2018
This project involved four artists, including Tom Young and myself. The new owner invited us to create artistic work with the aim of raising funds to help restore this beautiful Lebanese house located in Mar Mikhael on Armenia Street.
My objective was to document how time has passed, and continues to pass, over these sadly derelict places, which were emptied during the civil war. Families fled the area, or even the country, and the new generations might not even know they own such precious mansions.
I wanted to show how the elements slowly deteriorate these structures over time. Two additional series were created: one of collages, (where I inserted old family photos into the actual context 65 years later) and another called Illusions to highlight the contrast between these empty houses and the vibrant life that often surrounds them, especially at night. This contrast exists across many neighborhoods in Lebanon, where forgotten houses stand quietly amid the rhythm of everyday life.
L'hippodrome de Beyrouth
2013/2020
This beautiful place, now abandoned, once represented the culmination of Lebanese knowhow in terms of horse racing and breeding. I visited it during its last seven years before it closed in 2018 due to COVID and the crisis the country went through…
Street Photography
SINCE 2008
This is an ongoing project that involves taking street photographs all over Lebanon, starting in 2008. I have noticed that a street perspective, even in villages, reveals many aspects of an area and its community. It includes the people, the architecture, the food, seasonality, habits, religion, and more.
Streets act as a facade where communities express themselves. Being bold is important in some cases. I often end up chatting with locals, having coffee, and connecting with them. There is a specific language to learn in order to become invisible so that your subjects behave naturally in your presence.
Sometimes using a telephoto lens helps, but I find myself using a wide-angle lens most of the time in this context. It is challenging, but when used properly, it captures multiple layers that help the viewer understand what they are looking at.