Beirut, recurring dream
2021 - ongoing
Photography, family archives, video
I hold numerous memories of Beirut during my childhood. The scent of orange blossoms, the fragrant presence of gardenia and jasmine, the checkpoints on the way to school, the faint saltiness in the air along the corniche, the blue of the sky, the distinct smell of burning garbage.
In 1983, amidst the civil war, we left Lebanon, creating a vast void and a profound sense of rupture within me, one that remained unhealed until my return to Beirut thirteen years later.
Since my early years, Beirut has held immense significance in my life, and my sole wish was to return and stay, which I eventually did.
Years later, on August 4, 2020 one of the most horrific explosions in history happened in the port of Beirut. Lives were erased in the blink of an eye and hearts forever broken. Ever since, we see, hear, taste, smell and love differently.
Through this ongoing photographic series, I aim to search into my fervent and enduring love for Beirut, a city that has lived through repeated devastation, yet within its chaos, it still manages to offer moments of magic and wonder.
Beauty and pain live close to one another in Beirut. Most of the time the city feels like a person, like a lover that has left.
Abbaye de Jumièges
Abbaye de Jumièges
De Factorij Brussels
De Factorij Brussels
De Factorij Brussels
De Factorij Brussels