Beirut`s female photographers capture a scarred past and an

Art & Culture (http://www.huckmagazine.com/artand-culture/)
/ Beirut’s female photographers capture a scarred
past and an embattled present
Beirut’s female photographers
capture a scarred past and an
embattled present
(http://www.huckmagazine.com/artand-culture/beiruts-femalephotographers-capture-scarred-
photographers-capture-scarredpast-embattled-present/)
(http://www.huckmagazine.com/artand-culture/beiruts-femalephotographers-capture-scarred-pastembattled-present/)
I
n the fifth and final instalment of Oodee’s POV Female series, released this week, the Lebanese
capital Beirut is brought into focus by five of the city’s foremost female photographers.
The projects run the gamut from transgressive reclamations of public space to disturbing snapshots
of an urban area in the immediate aftermath of a devastating war. Each series is, inevitably, deeply
affecting and when drawn together they offer a remarkable image of a city in flux.
Damien Poulain, Oodee’s creative director, told us about his route to the project, the vision behind
it, and his reasons for choosing Beirut as the last city in the series:
“My first desire was to publish the work of young female photographers. In doing so, I realized that
for many practical reasons, I needed to establish a publishing house. The market of photography
books became a beautiful platform to reveal new talents when, in the past, only well known photographers were able to publish their body of work. The Internet and social media have afforded
the industry greater visibility and have given the public a degree of autonomy.
“I consider POV Female to be an open window to the world and to its richness. It was really important to make a controversial and unexpected selection of cities. All the selected cities are culturally
diverse and opposed. By this cultural and artistic project we wanted to challenge the city, the citizen, the artists, the audience and create a space for thoughts.
“Beirut is a city that questions us through its history, culture and identity. It was the perfect city to
work with.”
We’ve profiled each of the artits in the collection below and, for good measure, we’ve included their
words of wisdom for young female photographers:
Randa Mirza
Concerned with capturing and toying with the space between the superficial and the real, Randa
Mirza’s work challenges the archetypes and binaries that structure the world both within and without her native Beirut.
‘Parallel Universes’ is a series designed to target “the sacred cow of war photography” by superimposing incongruous images onto scenes from the July War of 2006. ‘Beirutopia’ captures the computer-generated images that property developers display on proposed land, juxtaposing an imagined future with an abiding present.
“Gender is not a barrier. Understand the subjects you are photographing and disregard misogynist reactions.”
Ayla Hibri
Ayla Hibri captures the people and places that she encounters with remarkable intimacy and honesty. Real Prince is the result of her time in Yemen and the fascination that she developed with the
bikers that she met, “a subculture of steel-horse riders… a special breed of knights, cowboys, and
warriors.” The series draws out the radical individuality of each of the men and focuses on the
prevalence of subcultural aesthetics.
“It’s going to be your whole life’s crusade. Be prepared. Develop your own language, take your pleasures seriously. Get out of your comfort zone. If you’re shy, work on being less shy, you will need all the confidence. Explore.”
Caroline Tabet
Through the use of experimental digital and analogue techniques, Caroline Tabet works with light
and shade to the point that one or the other often floods through her photographs. At other
points, she gladly confronts the surreal. ‘Disintegrated Objects’ eschews these left-field methods,
however, instead detailing with disturbing clarity the state of her home city on the first day of the
ceasefire in 2006.
“Don’t wait for anyone to initiate your projects. With a lot of work, sincerity and stubbornness your series will
eventually be noticed.”
Lara Tabet
Lara Tabet’s photographs are often bound up in nightmare imagery, crossing into the haziest – and
occasionally the darkest – confines of the imagination. ‘The Reeds’ is an exploration of the nature of
public space in Beirut, an attempt to reconnect with denied land through visible transgression. The
collection was won the Daylight Photo Award Juror’s Pick in 2013.
“Don’t be afraid to break barriers, and work very hard. Sometimes I find it helpful to have different projects or
use different mediums that feed off each others.”
Lamia Maria Abillama
Lamia Maria Abillama has been almost perpetually surrounded by armed conflict and its aftershocks having grown up in the shadow of the Lebanese Civil War. Working primarily in portraits,
her work delves masterfully delves into the stories beneath the skin of her subjects. In ‘Clashing Realities’, Abillama draws on this to present a series of women in military dress, highlighting the immorality of a conflict that harms those who have never been involved in combat.
“Simple advice: Believe in what you do! When you have the drive for something, just follow it and do not listen to anybody.”
Visit the Oodee website (http://oodee.net/) for more detail on POV Beirut and the whole POV Female series.
POV Beirut launches at the Papercup Bookshop in Beirut, Lebanon on May 28.
()
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