Photo Forum Beirut

PFB #6: Photo Forum Beirut special Revolutions

2011-05-16T04:54:00.000-07:00

The World Press Photo exhibition is travelling to Lebanon this month (Beirut Souks - May 12 to June 1, 2011, daily from 2pm to 9pm).
Photo Forum Beirut has been invited to run a session during the time of the exhibition on Saturday 21st May 2011.

Please join us for our first session of the year on Saturday 21st May at 7.30pm at Beirut Souks.
Admission is free and bar will open from 7pm.

A Libyan rebel holds the Kingdom of Libya flag as he walks past a burning wrecked tank at a site bombed by coalition air force in the town of Ajdabiya on March 26, 2011 as forces loyal to Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi were retreating after rebels recaptured the key eastern town in their first significant victory since the launch of the Western-led air strikes a week ago. © courtesy AFP/PATRICK BAZ

On 14th January 2011 Tunisian people brought about the downfall of longtime president Ben Ali. Since then, civil protests of resistance have spread to Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, Oman and Syria.

Photo Forum Beirut wants to celebrate and support civil demonstrations in the MENA region through the lens of photographers who have witnessed and reported on these events.

We are very proud to dedicate this year's 1st session to the people's revolutions in the region.
We have invited photographers who have covered/ are covering the events to show their work and share their experience with the audience.
The projection will be followed by a panel discussion chaired by journalist Delphine Minoui.

Confirmed participants:
Please note that due to the ongoing events in the countries of the MENA region, some photographers still haven't been able to confirm their presence; we will update the information in the next couple of days.

** Delphine Minoui
Delphine Minoui writes about Iran and the region since 1997. She covered the aftermath of 9/11 from Afganistan for Le Figaro newspaper, the American invasion of Irak and the Iranian nuclear crisis. She received the prestigious Albert Londres Prize in 2006 for a series of stories in Iran and Irak. She wrote Pintades à Téhéran : chroniques de la vie des Iraniennes (Jacob-Duvernet Ed., 2007) and was the editor of the collectif book Jeunesse d'Iran : les voix du changement (Autrement Ed., 2001). After working as a journalist for 10 years in Tehran, she is now based in Beirut.
http://blog.lefigaro.fr/iran/

*** Patrick Baz
Patrick Baz was born in Beirut in 1963 and grew up in what will become in the mid 70’s the demarcation line separating the Christian and Muslim communities in Beirut. He started then taking pictures of Lebanon’s wars working for local media and then as a freelancer for Reuters, JB Pictures, Time, Newsweek, Paris Match and all major international publications before being hired by AFP in 1989. Beside all major Middle East conflicts and crisis He covered the war in Bosnia, Somalia and Afghanistan.
Patrick Baz is the Mideast Regional Photo Manager for Agence France Presse since 1996.
http://www.patrickbaz.com

*** Hussein Malla
Hussein Malla was born in Beirut in 1972. He joined the Associated Press as a photo stringer in Lebanon in 1998 and became a full-time staff photographer in October 2003, when he took up base in Jordan.
He has covered many stories for the AP in Pakistan, North Africa and the Middle East.
Since 2005, Hussein Malla is the Associated Press Beirut Chief Photographer.
http://www.ap.org/

*** Joseph Eid

Joseph Eid was born in Beirut in 1976. After finishing his undergraduate studies in Political Sciences, History and Photography in 2002, he worked as a writer and reporter at the Lebanese Broadcast Corporation International. In 2006 he joined the Agence France Press photo department where he was assigned in Baghdad as picture desk editor until 2008.

Since 2009 he has been working in Beirut as AFP's photo-coordinator and photographer for Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. He covered major events in the cited countries as well as the latest events in Bahrain and Libya.

www.afp.com

Photo Forum Beirut is happening since January 2010 thanks to the commitment of photographer Dalia Khamissy
and

Thanks to The Royal Netherlands Embassy in Beirut, the Faculty of Architecture, Art and Design at Notre Dame University in collaboration with Solidere.

PFB End of Year Party

2010-12-19T13:09:00.000-08:00

Zico House and Photo-Festivals invite you to Photo Forum Beirut End of Year Party on Tuesday 21st December 2010

**Celebrate with us our last session of the year!

We are thrilled to invite you to one night projection of slideshows to celebrate the end of the year with some of the photographers who have shown their work at Photo Forum Beirut this year.

Come along and have a drink with us while discovering or re-discovering talented photographers!

This special End of Year Session will take place at Zico House on Tuesday 21st December 2010 and will start at 21.00.

**Evening of slideshows by:

* Anastasia Taylor-Lind (PFB #1)

Anastasia Taylor-Lind is a young English photojournalist who is part of the VII Photo Agency mentor program under the guidance of Ron Haviv. She is based in Damascus where she works for clients such as The Sunday Times Magazine, Marie Claire and GEO Germany.
Anastasia’s work has been exhibited internationally, in spaces such as The Frontline Club in London, Oude Kerk in Amsterdam and the Lodz Photo festival in Poland.
Anastasia has won a number of photography awards including The Guardian Photography prize in 2006. She recently won the Canon Young Photographer Award 2009 for the best photography project.

More about Anastasia Taylor-Lind's work on: www.anastasiataylorlind.com

* Lara Zankoul (PFB #1)

Lara Zankoul was born in 1987 in Lebanon, lived in KSA and came back to Lebanon when she was 17 years old.
She studied economics at Notre Dame University, where she took an introductory course to photography as a free elective. She bought her first camera in June 2009 and has been passionate about photography since then. She is currently working in the business field as a researcher. Lara started to work as a freelance photographer in December 2009. She is still exploring the photography world through her "365" project on Flickr.

*Nadim Bou Habib (PFB #1 and Open Forum #2)

@Nadim Bou Habib

Nadim Bou Habib is a Lebanese photographer based in Beirut, where he owns his own studio and works as a freelance photographer. He is mostly interesting in documentary photography. Ever since he was a child, he was fascinated by photography, led by his curiosity and sense of adventure. In 2007, he receives his BA in Photography from the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik in Lebanon for the project he did about a forgotten railway, built a century ago by the Ottomans, traveling between Syria, Jordan, Turkey and Iran, in a way to reveal its secrets..

His photographs have been published in different international magazines like Soura Magazine, Asian Geographic Passport and Alef Magazine and have been exhibited in the Byblos International Festival and USEK in Lebanon as well as the Aleppo International Photo Gathering in Syria

Nadim recently attended the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Istanbul where he was tutored by Ron Haviv. For his work there, he got the award of the most consistent and stubborn photographer.

* Elias Moubarak (PFB #2)

Elias Moubarak was born in 1985; since he was a little child he has been fascinated by moving images and pictures.

He studied Communication Arts at the Lebanese American University at Byblos. Since his graduation, he has a documentary project that he is working on. He took photography seriously a year ago when he bought his first DSLR camera. Elias likes to experiment even though he finds himself mostly among people and the stories they could share. Elias had an exhibition called Rust Never Sleeps at the Centre Culturel of Jbeil. He's interested in pursuing his studies and master in photography or photojournalism.

More about Elias' work on: Le Coeur a Droite

* Odette Makhlouf (PFB #3)

© Odette Makhlouf

Lebanese Odette Makhlouf holds a diploma in cinema studies from the Universite Saint Esprit – Kaslik and a master’s degree in cinema and audio-visual studies from Paris 8 – France. Since then she has been working on different feature films and TV commercials.

*Jared Moossy (Open Forum #2)

Jared Moossy is a Texan born documentary photographer based in Dallas, Texas. He is represented by Redux Pictures in New York City and is a member of Razón Collective. Jared graduated from Parsons School of Design in New York City in May 2008. His interest in photography goes hand in hand with his interest in current events and social issues. His professional career has mostly been focused on changing country of Afghanistan and the heightened tension of Mexico’s Internal war on Drugs.

Jared attended the Eddie Admas Workshop in 2008 and won the PDN Photo Annual and Marty Forcher fellowship fund in 2008. Jared was also awarded a place in PDN 30's emerging photographers in 2009. He has worked with and been published in Newsweek, Time, The Wall Street Journal, Stern, Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, Die Ziet among others.

**Special present from Yasmina Reggad, 'Travelog' with:

Roubaye Korab (Lebanon)

Ivor Prickett (Ireland / Lebanon)

Poulomi Basu (India / UK)

Will Hartley (UK)

Versus Collective (Peru)

Breno Rotatori (Brazil)

Gohar Dashti (Iran)

Photo Forum #4: Special Session with World Press Photo MENA Training Program's Participants

2010-10-05T09:39:00.000-07:00

Zico House and Photo-Festivals invite you to the 4th session of Photo Forum Beirut on Tuesday 19th October 2010

**Format of the session

We are thrilled and honored to hold a session dedicated to photographers who participated in the Middle East and North Africa training programme of World Press Photo.
Carole Alfarah, Laura Boushnak and Grace Kassab will speak about their experience and show the work they developed during the training program.

This fourth session will take place at Zico House on 19th October 2010 from 19.00 to 21.00.

*** Carole Al-Farah

Carole Al-Farah will present the series 'The Little Survivor'

My passion in photography started when I was 19 years old. I began with small steps, by taking pictures of everything around me; I found I could express as a person better through pictures.

In 2001 I studied business at the institute of commerce in Damascus, but during this period I taught myself photography by reading and admiring books by great photographers.

In 2004 I was sure that I wished to be a professional photographer. Therefore, I decide to study photography at Contrast Institute in Brussels, Belgium. I spent two years taking courses and learning among other things about Art of Photography and Black and White photography. At first I thought I had an interest in fashion photography because I was working with French fashion photographer who was working in Belgium. However, I soon realized that my passion was in photojournalism, and that telling real human tales was my true interest. I was not searching photographs that looked always perfect, I was looking for reality, the truth beyond the camera.

When I returned to Damascus in 2007 I began working as a freelance photojournalist doing work for local and regional publication, specially magazines. During the period of 2009-2010 I participated in a MENA photojournalism workshop organized by World Press Photo.

More about Carole Al-Farah's work here

*** Laura Boushnak

Laura Boushnak will present the series 'Out of Beirut's Closet'

Laura Boushnak is a Palestinian photographer born in Kuwait. She is currently based between Beirut and Pristina, where she works as a freelance photographer in Kosovo for the French News Agency (AFP). Laura is also represented by Dubai-based photo agency ArabianEye.

She began her professional photography career with the Associated Press in Beirut, and later joined AFP at their Middle East headquarters in Cyprus and then in Paris. Laura has worked on assignments in conflict zones such as Iraq and Lebanon, and her AFP work has appeared in many international publications including The New York Times, The Guardian, The National Geographic and Le Monde.

Her personal documentary work focuses on social issues such as refugees, Islam, the aftermath of war, women in general and Arab women in particular. She holds a degree in Social Sciences from the Lebanese University in Beirut and a diploma from the New York institute of photography.

More about Laura Boushnak's work here

*** Grace Kassab

Grace Kassab will present the series 'Five Survivors'

Lebanese photographer Grace Kassab was born in June of 1976 in Beirut. In 2002, she receives a diploma in Photography from the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik. Upon her graduation she works as an assistant at the studios of Lebanese photographer Roger Moukarzel and quits in 2004 to work on her personal projects. In 2005 and after the withdrawal of the Syrian troops from Lebanon after a three-decades presence in Lebanon, Grace visits Lebanese residences that were occupied by the Syrian troops and documents them; this body of work was published in the Lebanese magazine L'Orient Express. Beginning of 2006, she works as a trainee at the Reuters photo desk in Beirut and at the end of 2006, she gets the job of a photo editor and photographer at the Associated Press in Beirut where she has been working until now.

Her photographs have been published in different international magazines and newspapers like the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, the Sign On San Diego and L'Orient Express amongst others.

*** About the MENA training program

World Press Photo is organizing a region-wide training program for photojournalists from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). A combination of online and face-to-face workshops will offer 15 photographers impulse in developing photojournalistic, editing and post-production skills.

The first part of the program, carried out in cooperation with the London College of Communications, consists of a 16-week online course, given in Arabic by two local tutors - Aladin Abdel Naby (Egypt) and Rula Halawani (Palestinian Territories). Next comes a week-long workshop in Istanbul, identifying and shooting picture stories. The five most promising candidates will be invited to a follow-up course on story-telling, ending in a further workshop in April 2010. Additionally, a workshop will be given to 10 photo editors in the region on picture editing and picture management

More about the program and complete list of participants here.

Photo Forum Beirut is on Holiday

2010-08-05T02:56:00.000-07:00

Photo Forum Beirut will be on holiday during the summer. We will be back in October!

Please email photoforumbeirut[at]gmail[dot]com with the subject header 'mailing list' if you wish to be informed about our next sessions. Or join our Facebook page: http://bit.ly/asSW6c

Meanwhile we are thrilled to announce our partnership with Photo-Festivals for the 4th Crossing Point Residency at Visa pour l'Image 2010.

Lebanese photographer and Photo Forum Beirut collaborator Dalia Khamissy has been selected by Photo-Festivals to participate in the Crossing Point Residency at Visa pour l'Image 2010.
The Crossing Point residency gives the photographer the opportunity to travel and participate in a photography festival in Europe for the first time in his/her career. It is designed to enable the photographer to network with other like-minded international photographers and practitioners and make the most of the festival.

Born in Beirut, Dalia Khamissy graduated in Photography from the Universite Saint-Esprit Kaslik (Lebanon).

Her work revolves around social and political stories in the Middle-East region. Her photography explores the notions of refugees, borders, legal documents and the power they have in changing people’s lives. She has also been documenting the aftermath of the several wars she has witnessed while growing up in Lebanon.

In 2005 Khamissy worked as a picture editor for the Associated Press in Beirut and quit after the Israeli offensive on Lebanon in 2006.

Since then she has been a full-time photographer documenting the aftermath of Lebanon’s wars, her country’s contemporary and social issues, in particular those concerning women rights. She is presently based in Beirut, Lebanon.

Khamissy’s work has been published in Aperture Magazine, Eyemazing, Bite Magazine (previously known as The Black Snapper), Monocle, Financial Times, Le Monde, Wall Street Journal, MERIP, Le Nouvel Observateur, IRIN, Nox, Skin, Zawaya and Transit Beirut amongst others… Her images were also published in several catalogues for the UNEP, UNHCR, Italian Cooperation, Aleppo’s Photo Festival and Regards des Photographes Arabes Contemporains by the Institut du Monde Arabe amongst others.

In partnership with:

PHOTO FORUM BEIRUT

Media Partners:

Open Forum #2

2010-07-01T14:40:00.000-07:00

Zico House, Photo-Festivals and Photo Forum Beirut are thrilled to announce Open Forum #2 on Monday 5th July with guest-photographers Jared Moossy and Nadim Bou Habib

Open Forum is a spontaneous evening events hosting talks by photography practitioners and projections of photography artworks.

Open Forum #2 , we have invited American photographer Jared Moossy to talk about his photography essays in Afghanistan and Mexico, and he will introduce Razón, the photo collective he is a member.

We are very proud to have Nadim Bou Habib (Photo Forum Beirut #1's selected photographer) who just came back from Turkey after taking part in this year Foundry Photojournalism Workshop. Nadim will tell his experience and will show some of the work produced during the workshop.

The event will take place at Zico House on Sunday 5th July at 7pm.

*** About Jared Moossy

*** About Nadim Bou Habib

Nadim recently attended the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Istanbul where he was tutored by Ron Haviv. For his work there, he got the award of the most consistent and stubborn photographer.

Selected Photographers #3

2010-05-13T05:21:00.000-07:00

Photo Forum Beirut is thrilled to announce names of selected photographers for the second session, which theme is: RELATIONSHIP

Second session's selectors Yumi Goto is pleased she had the opportunity to see the submitted works and discover new photographers. The selection for this session was limited to three. We wish the others every success with future submissions to the Photo Forum Beirut and invite them to join us on Tuesday.

We are pleased to introduce the three selected photographers who will present their work on Tuesday 18th May at 7pm at Zico House.

** Roubaye Korab

Roubaye will show a series of portraits she did on Old Maids in Lebanon

My mum's aunt was an old maid. She died 2 years ago. After her death, I was wondering why she never got married. Will I be like her one day? Many questions came to my mind about the way an old maid lives, her psychological state, her position in the society, and what does marriage mean to her. Society looks at these old maids with pity as if they spoiled their lives. I decided to enter their world; I photographed these old ladies who crossed the 60 years of age wearing like a Bride: A moment they've never lived.

Roubaye Korab is an independent photographer born in 1987. In 2009, she receives her BA in Photography from the Universite Saint Esprit Kaslik. She has participated in the IHPE07 (International Heritage Photographic Experience 07.) She is currently based in Beirut, working on different commissions as well as her personal projects.

** Bryan Denton

© Bryan Denton

Bryan will show a series of Black and White Photographs about Hezbollah's Mahdi Scouts

This work is part of an ongoing project about Hezbollah's Mahdi Scouts. For me, as a Beirut-based photographer working primarily for The New York Times, and other international media, this project has been a window for me into Hezbollah's relationship with many of the youth in the Lebanese Shia community in the South—many of whom represent the organizations next generation.

Bryan Denton is a freelance photojournalist based in Beirut, Lebanon. He began his career covering news, conflict and social issues after graduating from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, focusing on photography and Middle Eastern and Islamic studies. Bryan has been a contributing photographer with the New York Times since 2005, and his work has also been featured on the pages of TIME, Newsweek, GQ, The Wall Street Journal, The Times of London, Der Spiegel, The National, Courrier International, The Globe and Mail, and The New Republic and he has recently completed assignments in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Georgia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iraq and Haiti.

More about Bryan's work on: Bryan Denton

** Odette Makhlouf

@ Odette Makhlouf

Odette will show photographs of her cousin's wedding in Syria

Few months ago I got a phone call, my cousin was getting married. Three days later I was in a taxi on my way to Homs Syria. My mother is Syrian, all her relatives are still there, yet the last time I‘ve been there was ten years ago. I always had mixed feeling towards this country: In a way I couldn’t get over the Lebanese war period and the Syrian interventions, yet a string kept me attached to this land that stayed authentic, and kept its soul. Through the marriage ceremony I felt an urge to document the complexity of relationships: the show, the emotions, traditions and religion.

Lebanese Odette Makhlouf holds a diploma in cinema studies from the Universite Saint Esprit – Kaslik and a master’s degree in cinema and audio-visual studies from Paris 8 – France. Since then she has been working on different feature films and TV commercials.

Photo Forum Beirut launch Open Forum #1

2010-05-11T07:42:00.000-07:00

Zico House, Photo-Festivals and Photo Forum Beirut are thrilled to launch the first Open Forum with photographer Eugenie Dolberg on Sunday 16th May

Open Forum will be a spontaneous evening events hosting talks by photography practitioners and projection of photography artworks.

To launch our first Open Forum, we have invited photographer Eugenie Dolberg and filmmaker Maysoon Pachachi to talk about the photography project Open Shutters Iraq and read from the eponymous photo book published in March by Trolley Books.
The talk will take place at Zico House on Sunday 16th May at 7pm.

Photographs from Open Shutters Iraq project will also be exhibited at UMAM from 14th May, 6pm.
Filmmaker Maysoon Pachachi who followed the project, created a 102-minute documentary which will be screened at Metropolis Art Cinema on Monday 17th May, 8pm.

*** About Eugenie Dolberg and Maysoon Pachachi

Eugenie Dolberg is a photographer who developed Open Shutters to teach photography not only as a medium of documentation, but as a way to share ideas and emotional experiences. She lives between London and Tehran.

Maysoon Pachachi is an Iraqi filmmaker, editor for television documentaries and dramas and documentaries director. She has time teaching film and video directing and editing in Jerusalem and Gaza for the Jerusalem Film Institute and Med Media, a program of the European Union and at Birzeit University in Ramallah. Pachachi currently lives in Britain, and plans to create a school and a film festival in Baghdad.

*** About Open Shutters Iraq photography project

"I open my eyes in the morning…I see the gun by my bed I toss and turn and then close my eyes so I don’t see the gun…and I go to sleep at night. My husband and I go to sleep “decent” these days. We worry that someone will attack us, the distance between me and my husband has started to grow, we no longer talk before we sleep, nor do we laugh together in the morning…there is no space for anything but anxiety."
© Lu'lu'a, Kirkuk /Index On Censorship/Open Shutters

The Open Shutters Iraq photography project began in 2006 when photojournalist Eugenie Dolberg gathered a group of Iraqi women in Damascus for a month to teach them how to take photographs. The 12 women shared their life stories, talking about their joys and opening up about surviving wars, death threats and kidnappings. They later returned to Iraq, where they used their newfound strength in photography to capture their stories.

*** About Open Shutters Iraq photography book

Open Shutters Iraq is a book of nine photographic essays and writing by women from all over Iraq. The thread of contemporary Iraqi history emerges through their tales of war, sanctions, intifada, siege, kidnapping, grief, love, happiness, times of resistance, achievements and small triumphs.

Dolberg, frustrated by the lack of journalistic access in Iraq and subsequent coverage of the war, decided to find a way for Iraqi women to tell their story in their own voices, the human reality of war, behind the collective headlines.
As Irada Zaydan, the Iraqi Project Manager who quit her job as a professor at the University of Baghdad to work on this project, and risked her life on several occasions says, 'This is not a project, this is a dream. A dream I want to live for my daughter. So she can grow up and understand what is truly happening now.'

Trolley Books is a leading independent publisher committed to issues germane to contemporary society in art, photography and reportage.
In the nine years since its inception in 2001 Trolley has established itself as an innovative and exciting imprint recognised for its diverse and often daring range of photography and art books, its high quality of production and design, and most of all for its commitment to the integrity of its publications.
Recognition has come in part from the numerous prestigious awards it has received, from such institutions as the Infinity Award of the ICP in New York, Rencontres D’Arles, Pictures of the Year International, the American Photography Awards, PDN and Photo Eye, and also from a more than positive reception by the domestic and international media. Trolley also received a commendation for its services to photography book publishing at
the 2004 Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards.

Photo Forum Beirut #3: Call for submission - EXTENDED DEADLINE - MAY 10

2010-03-28T12:22:00.000-07:00

Zico House and Photo-Festivals invite you to the third session of Photo Forum Beirut on Tuesday 18th May 2010

**Format of the sessions

Selected photographers will have a chance to experience speaking about their work in public, to articulate concerns, aims and plans for their photography and to ask opinions in an open environment.
We strongly encourage feedback from the attending audience.

The third session will take place at Zico House on 18th May 2010 from 19.00 to 21.00.

For each session we will invite an international external selector to choose the photographers who will present and discuss their work.

We are proud to announce Photo Forum Beirut #3's international selector: Yumi Goto

Yumi Goto is an art and photo documentary project coordinator and curator.
Her work has focused on the development of cultural exchanges that transcend borders through collaboration with local artists and NGOs in areas affected by conflict.
She launched and serves as editor-in-chief of pdfX12 | photo documentary folioX12, a free photographic portfolio digitally distributed since 2007. Goto also has worked as a photo editor for the 100th memorial photographic book project, This Day of Change by the Japanese publisher Kodansha in 2008-2009. In 2010, She launched a weekly photography blog “I was there”.

Past international selectors:
PFB #1: Yasmina Reggad, UK-based independent curator, founder and director of Photo-Festival.
PFB #2: Cia de Foto, Sao Paulo-based photo collective.

** Talk

Every month, Photo Forum Beirut invites a local or visiting host to speak about a specific issue related to photography practice.

Third session's speaker will be announced shortly.

** Submission process

Theme: RELATIONSHIP

Deadline: 10TH MAY 2010

The session will benefit photographers who do not have access to regular feedback and are willing to receive specialist and peer-led critique of their work.
Please note that the session is NOT for exhibiting printed pictures; selected photographers will show their work or series related to this month theme in either slide or digital projection.

TO APPLY for Photo Forum Beirut #3, please make sure you will be in Beirut on Tuesday 18th May 2010.
Please follow our guidelines:

- create a Photoshelter Starter free account: (and do not forget to choose STARTER at the bottom of the box of Pick a Plan)

- upload your photographs (up to 20 images of 1024 pixels on the longest side, and a file size NO larger than 500 kb);

- share your gallery with photoforumbeirut@gmail (not familiar with Photoshelter? Follow the 3 first “Getting started” steps);

- name your gallery with your Name and Surname;

- email us a short biography, a presentation text or artist statement about your work.

Selected Photographers #2

2010-03-14T16:02:00.001-07:00

Photo Forum Beirut is thrilled to announce names of selected photographers for the second session, which theme is: The CITY

The second session's selectors Cia de Foto are pleased they had the opportunity to see the submitted works and discover new photographers. The selection for this session was limited to three. We wish the others every success with future submissions to the Photo Forum Beirut and invite them to join us on Tuesday.

The session's talk changed at the last minute and we had the honour to introduce French photographer Samuel Le Coeur who explained about the Association Point Rouge and its role in the hanging of art works during cultural and artistic exhibitions and events. Le Coeur had started his work in hanging images at exhibitions with the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie in Paris.

We are pleased to introduce the three selected photographers who will present their work on Tuesday 16th March at 7pm at Zico House.

** Fernando Borges

Fernando will show a series of pictures he did on Night Workers

Fernando’s work is an ongoing project shot at night around Beirut. A group of young photography enthusiasts go around the city every Tuesday night, from 9 till 12PM. The group started for fun on Facebook and ended expanding to become a collective of around 20 active members working on a project about night workers. Together they formed the “Night Collective”

Fernando Borges is a Brazilian photographer currently based in Lebanon

More about Fernando's work on: Flying Kebab and the Night Collective

** Elias Moubarak

Elias will show a series of Black and White images

After trying different styles in photography, I have found that the pictures that matter to me the most are the ones with something happening in them, a story behind them, interesting characters, something true and with emotions to share. I consider photography a very instinctive form of art. It is only later sometimes that I understand the choices I make when I choose my subjects and frame my pictures. I truly believe that pictures should speak for themselves and suggest different interpretations and reactions.

Elias Moubarak was born in 1985; since he was a little child he has been fascinated by moving images and pictures.

More about Elias' work on: Le Coeur a Droite

** Matias Nordahl Carlsen

Matias will show a selection of photographs from his series "Occupied"

Morocco annexed most of Western Sahara in 1975, when the Spanish occupiers retreated during Franco`s last years. Today Western Sahara is the biggest country, both in size and population on the UN list of Non-Self-Governing Territories. Their government, The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, are located in the refugee camps on the Algerian side of a more than 2500 km long Moroccan built wall. And the Saharawi population, still living in the occupied territories, are now outnumbered by the Moroccan settlers and suffer from discrimination and lack of freedom of speech. Human rights activists has been jailed and tortured with no trails. Youngsters are frequently beaten up and arrested after demonstrations. Journalists and photographers have been refused entry or kicked out after arrival.

Hiding my camera under my jacket I went to find out how the Saharawis are coping with the situation and how they live their lives. I spent a month in the occupied territories and often stayed in the houses of people who where to become my Friends.

The pictures I want to present is the result of my research trip to Western Sahara. I also want to present quotations from the people i meet in the captions.

I want to continue the project with photographing the refugee camps in Algeria and the the Polisarios armed forces in Mauritania.

Photojournalist and documentary filmmaker Matias Nordahl Carlsen, born in 1981, has been working on documenting social issues around the world for the past 5 years. For his films he has won the Norwegian Documentary Film Festival three times. He started out as a photographer in 2007, when he was working in a Nepali Television program in Kathmandu. Since then he has been documenting Burmese refugee camps in Bangladesh, untouchable women's struggle in Nepal, the deforestation in Peru, the Norwegian army's factories in China, amongst other things.

REMINDER - Photo Forum Beirut #2: Call for submission

2010-03-03T08:48:00.000-08:00

Zico House and Photo-Festivals invite you to the second session of Photo Forum Beirut on Tuesday 16th March 2010

**Format of the sessions

Selected photographers will have a chance to experience speaking about their work in public, to articulate concerns, aims and plans for their photography and to ask opinions in an open environment.
We strongly encourage feedback from the attending audience.

The second session will take place at Zico House on 16th March 2010 from 19.00 to 21.00.

For each session we will invite an international external selector to choose the photographers who will present and discuss their work.
The second session's selector is the Brazilian photo collective Cia de Foto.

** Talk

Every month, Photo Forum Beirut invites a local or visiting host to speak about a specific issue related to photography practice.

For our second session, Ibrahim Suleiman from Paladium will open the session and talk about his work as a printer.

Ibrahim Suleiman is a technical printer based in Beirut. He is the owner of Paladium, one of Lebanon's leading photographic printing and finishing centres he established in 1998 in Hamra. Suleiman is behind the printing and finishing of most of the photo exhibitions in Lebanon.

** Submission process

Theme: THE CITY

Deadline EXTENDED: from 1st February to 10th March 2010

The session will benefit photographers who do not have access to regular feedback and are willing to receive specialist and peer-led critique of their work.
Please note that the session is NOT for exhibiting printed pictures; selected photographers will show their work or series related to this month theme in either slide or digital projection.

TO APPLY for the second session of Photo Forum Beirut, please make sure you are in Beirut on Tuesday 16th March 2010. Please follow the following steps:

- create a Photoshelter Starter free account: (and do not forget to choose STARTER at the bottom of the box of Pick a Plan)

- upload your photographs (up to 20 images of 1024 pixels on the longest side, and a file size NO larger than 500 kb);

- share your gallery with photoforumbeirut@gmail (not familiar with Photoshelter? Follow the 3 first “Getting started” steps);

- name your gallery with your Name and Surname;

- email us a short biography, a presentation text or artist statement about your work.

Photo Forum Beirut postpone the second session planned this month on 16th February 2010

2010-02-10T08:47:00.000-08:00

Due to many requests for a new deadline for submission, Photo Forum Beirut decided to postpone the call for proposal of the second session planned this month on 16th February 2010.
As we wish to be inclusive and give everyone a chance to submit their work, we are aware that 10 days to respond to a call of submission might be too short.

As a result, we have decided to postpone this month session and to program the event on the 16th March 2010.

The call for submission's deadline is extended until the 10th March 2010.
Please note that rules, theme (The City) and international selector (Cia de Foto) remain the same.
You can still find the call for submission here.

If you have already submitted a work, you can either decide to maintain your submission or take advantage of these extra weeks to change your submission.

Apologies for the inconvenience and we hope that everyone would understand our wish to offer a fair and quality event.

Contact us and join our mailing list: photoforumbeirut@gmail

Photo Forum Beirut Second Session: Call for submission

2010-01-31T11:11:00.000-08:00

Zico House and Photo-Festivals invite you to the second session of Photo Forum Beirut on Tuesday 16th March 2010

**Format of the sessions

Selected photographers will have a chance to experience speaking about their work in public, to articulate concerns, aims and plans for their photography and to ask opinions in an open environment.
We strongly encourage feedback from the attending audience.

The second session will take place at Zico House on 16th March 2010 from 19.00 to 21.00.

For each session we will invite an international external selector to choose the photographers who will present and discuss their work.
Next session's selector is the Brazilian photo collective Cia de Foto.

** Talk

Every month, Photo Forum Beirut invites a local or visiting host to speak about a specific issue related to photography practice.

For our second session, Ibrahim Sleiman from Paladium will open the session and talk about his work as a printer.

Ibrahim Sleiman is a technical printer based in Beirut. He is the owner of Paladium, one of Lebanon's leading photographic printing and finishing centres he established in 1998 in Hamra. Sleiman is behind the printing and finishing of most of the photo exhibitions in Lebanon.

** Submission process

Theme: THE CITY

Deadline EXTENDED: from 1st February to 10th March 2010

The session will benefit photographers who do not have access to regular feedback and are willing to receive specialist and peer-led critique of their work.
Please note that the session is NOT for exhibiting printed pictures; selected photographers will show their work or series related to this month theme in either slide or digital projection.

TO APPLY for the second session of Photo Forum Beirut, please follow the following steps:

- create a Photoshelter Starter free account:

- upload your photographs (up to 20 images of up to 1024 pixels on the longest side, and a file size NO larger than 500 kb);

- share your gallery with photoforumbeirut@gmail (not familiar with Photoshelter? Follow the 3 first “Getting started” steps);

- name your gallery with your Name and Surname;

- email us a short biography, a presentation text or artist statement about your work.

Pictures of the first session of the Photo Forum Beirut

2010-01-27T09:55:00.000-08:00

About 100 curious have attended our first session on Tuesday 19th January!

We have been victim of our own success and were not prepared to welcome such a crowd.
Thanks so much for coming and for your contributions to the discussion!

Apologies to attendees who were on the back of the room, and people who turned up and could not find any room...
We are indeed looking forward to welcoming you again to the next session on 16th February.

Herewith some pictures of the first session of Photo Forum Beirut at Zico House:

Many thanks to our brave selected photographers Anastasia Taylor-Lind, Christina Rahme, Federico De Nardo, Lara Zankoul and Nadim Bou Habib, who brilliantly opened this first session and generously donate a photograph for our raffle.

Special thanks to Cia de Foto for sharing with us their very inspiring artwork 'Caixa de Sapato' and to Yasmina Reggad for leading this session.

By the way, we have announced next international external selector for the next session of Photo Forum Beirut. Cia de Foto will select photographers who will be showing and discussing their work on Tuesday 16th February.
Ibrahim Sleiman from Paladium will be our guest-speaker of the month with an introduction on his work as a printer.

More to come on our second session very soon.
Meanwhile, save the date and we hope to welcome you on the 16th February!

Selected Photographers #1

2010-01-18T00:50:00.000-08:00

Photo Forum Beirut is thrilled to announce names of selected photographers for the first session

We received 23 submissions and this first session's selector Yasmina Reggad was pleased to have the opportunity of seeing all these works and discovering new photographers from which she has selected five.

We wish unselected photographers every success with future submissions to the Photo Forum Beirut and invite them to join us on Tuesday.

Next session's selector and guest-speaker will be unveiled on Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, we are pleased to tell more about the five selected photographers who will present their work on Tuesday 19th, 7pm at Zico House.

** Anastasia Taylor-Lind

Anastasia will show her series "No Friends but the Mountains": Women of the PKK Guerrillas, Iraq/Turkey border, Kurdistan

[...] In the 1980s, among the ranks of the guerrilla fighters of the PKK or Kurdistan Workers Party, there were reported to be a dozen women fighting. While figures are inexact, one commander told us as many as 10,000 PKK soldiers are amassing in mountain camps just across the Iraqi border, risking their lives in daily spats with the Turkish army – the military representatives of a government they accuse of unmerciful human rights atrocities and the suppression of a nation of 14 million people. However, what is not widely reported is that a third of these Kurdish combatants are women – a phenomenon perhaps without precedent.

In all recent conflicts, from Bosnia to Palestine, women have been amongst those killed fighting, but has there ever been such an exodus of women leaving village life and their families, to take up arms in a foreign land?

Each had a story about the family they had left behind, and although they come from diverse backgrounds, and often from different countries, each had an experience that has driven their decision to fight and was at the heart of their belief in the PKK cause. And each believed that the sacrifices they had made, in leaving their homes and committing to a life which precludes marriage and having children, was worthwhile.
(Text by Katie Scott)

Anastasia Taylor-Lind is a young English photojournalist who is part of the VII Photo Agency mentor program under the guidance of Ron Haviv. She is based in Damascus where she works for clients such as The Sunday Times Magazine, Marie Claire and GEO Germany.
Anastasia’s work has been exhibited internationally, in spaces such as The Frontline Club in London, Oude Kerk in Amsterdam and the Lodz Photo festival in Poland.
Anastasia has won a number of photography awards including The Guardian Photography prize in 2006. She recently won the Canon Young Photographer Award 2009 for the best photography project.

More about Anastasia Taylor-Lind's work on: www.anastasiataylorlind.com

** Lara Zankoul

@ Lara Zankoul

Lara will show a selection of photographs from "365 project"

This series is part of a bigger project called the "365 project", which consists in taking a picture a day. I started this project on September 14th 2009, because I wanted to dedicate more time everyday to something I loved. This project turned to be a journey to see how far I could push myself and push my boundaries while experimenting with photography.
Here I am today, 125 pictures have been taken and I am still learning, trying and pushing my self.
My photographs are personal and intuitive images that express a certain state of mind, feelings, thoughts or philosophies. Among them are some pictures I took for a specific cause, such as global actions like the AIDS Awareness Day.
My photography is mainly conceptual. I like to convey the big picture through subtle things, like a movement, the lighting, or a part of a bigger thing. Art is not the representation of a beautiful thing, but the beautiful representation of things. When I see a very common setting, I make it beautiful in my mind and try to capture this with photography.
A picture speaks a thousand words.

Lara Zankoul was born in 1987 in Lebanon, lived in KSA and came back to Lebanon when she was 17 years old.
She studied economics at Notre Dame University, where she took an introductory course to photography as a free elective. She bought her first camera in June 2009 and has been passionate about photography since then. She is currently working in the business field as a researcher. Lara started to work as a freelance photographer in December 2009. She is still exploring the photography world through her "365" project on Flickr.

** Nadim Bou Habib

@Nadim Bou Habib

Nadim will show a selection of photographs from the series "Par-dessus les rails"

Nadim Bou Habib made a documentary about a forgotten railway, built a century ago by the Ottomans, traveling between Syria, Jordan, Turkey and Iran, in a way to reveal its secrets.
The photographs bring a touching approach to his subject, regardless of its location or ethnicities in the Middle East.
" It's like a blood vessel that transports oxygen to all parts of the body without any distinction."

Nadim Bou Habib was born in Lebanon in 1982. Ever since he was a child, he was fascinated by photography, led by his curiosity and sense of adventure.
He gave up his studies in medicine and shifted to photography. It was here that he found his true passion. He graduated 2 years ago with a BA in photography from the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik.
His work has been displayed in several international magazines, Asian Geographic Passport, Alef Mag, Soura Magazine. He now works in his own studio and is based in Beirut.

More about Nadim Bou Habib's work on: www.nadimbouhabib.com (under construction)

** Christina Rahme

@ Christina Rahme

Christina will show two series of fashion photographs

Fascinated by the world of imagination and fantasy - the world of creative photography, I built my fashion photography around this. My 2 series presented here were based on different concepts. The first, a commission for a "maison de couture", was based on the theme “Movement,” inspired by the loose, fluid and modern dresses. I wanted to portray a free bride rebelling, hence the choice of the movement.
The second series, a personal fashion project under the theme “Shoes.” In this project I worked on a relationship duality: in one hand, the women between each others, and on the other hand women' relationship with shoes.

Lebanese photographer Christina Rahme graduated with a M.A. in photography from USEK, in 2000. In her work, she focuses on enhancing the beauty of her subjects through light and creative photography as well as drawing the viewers into a world of imagination and fantasy.
Her most recent photo shoots include fashion commissions for magazines such as ELLE oriental, Aishti magazine and Gossip as well as various fashion designers. She has also worked on different advertising and promotional campaigns with advertising agencies such as Grey Worldwide and Impact BBDO.
Based in Beirut, she travels throughout the Middle East region for commissions.
Christina had the opportunity to work with world-renowned photographer Andre Rau as well as join various internships in Paris

More about Christina Rahme's work on: www.christinarahme.com (under construction)

*** Federico De Nardo

@ Federico De Nardo

Federico will show a selection of his series "Welcome to Lebanese"

The title "Welcome to Lebanese" has been inspired by the sentence many Lebanese taxi drivers at the International airport of Beirut use as they welcome visitors.

This series is a combination of portraits of different Lebanese characters from all over the country, combined with photographs of their working spaces.

During my ongoing stay in Lebanon, a country with much resemblance to my homeland Italy, I started a photographic research through which I tried to understand Lebanon. In this project, I aimed to capture the portraits of people from different parts of the country, coming from different social and religious backgrounds in order to emphasise the resemblance in their differences.

In my project, I was inspired by the photography book Un Paese - Portrait of an Italian Village by Paul Strand and Italian writer Cesare Zavattini. Through his images, Strand captures the immediacy of life and universal rhythm of Luzzara, Zavattini’s birthplace, yet quite unknown but radiant village in Italy’s Po Valley. Strand’s work expresses a deep connection between the lines in the faces of people he portrays and the places where they live, work and belong to, something I aimed to capture in my own view of Lebanon.

Federico De Nardo was born in Italy. He studied Tropical and Subtropical Agricultural Engineering.
His background as a photographer comes from an Msc. in fine art printing and zonal system and several years of self-learning.
He has his personal show “H2O2” in 1998, and several collective exhibitions.
He worked as assistant photographer for Luca Capuano Studio in 2005 and used to teach black and white fine art printing and history of photography in several privates schools in Bologna and Florence.
He worked in several tropical and subtropical countries he tries to understand through the lens of his camera and to translate into photography language.

Yasmina Reggad is supported by:

First session of Photo Forum Beirut

2010-01-03T08:30:00.000-08:00

Zico House and Photo-Festivals are thrilled to launch the first session of Photo Forum Beirut on the 19th January 2010

Photo Forum is an evening event offering and promoting a critical space within the photography community in Beirut.
Once ever two monthes, established and emerging photographers will have the opportunity to project and discuss their work with their peers and specialists in a public environment at Zico House.
Everyone is welcome to attend, get involved in the discussion and discover new bodies of work.

**Format of the sessions

Selected photographers will have a chance to experience speaking about their work in public, to articulate concerns, aims and plans for their photography and to ask opinions in an open environment.
We strongly encourage feedback from the attending audience.

The session will begin at 19.00 on 19th January 2010 giving all photographers 5 minutes to present their work, followed by a discussion with the attending public.

** Talk

Every month, Photo Forum Beirut at Zico House will also invite a local or visiting host to speak about a specific issue related to photography practice.

For the first session, Photo Forum Beirut will host a special screening of Cia de Foto's artwork "Caixa de Sapato".
The screening will be followed by a short presentation of the concept of photo collective by Yasmina Reggad.

Cia de Foto is a photo collective launched in 2003 and based in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Yasmina Reggad is a London-based curator, founder and director of the not-for-profit organization Photo-Festivals.

Yasmina Reggad is supported by:

We would like to thank the Photographers' Gallery Folio Forum, Photo Forum London and Four Corners' Photo Forum for indirectly inspiring and giving a framework to the first session of the Photo Forum Beirut at Zico House.

Submission process

2010-01-03T00:47:00.000-08:00

The session will benefit photographers who do not have access to regular feedback and are willing to receive specialist and peer-led critique of their work.

Please note that the session is not for showcasing portfolios; selected photographers will show a specific work or series of up to 20 photographs in either slide or digital projection.

To apply for the first session of Photo Forum Beirut, please create a Photoshelter Starter free account; upload your photographs (up to 20 images of up to 1052 pixels on the longest side, and a file size NO larger than 500 kb); and follow the 3 first “Getting started” steps (http://www.photoshelter.com/mem/home/help/tut) to share your gallery with photoforumbeirut@gmail. Please note that the gallery must be named with your Name and Surname.

DEADLINE to apply: 15th January 2010