Photo Forum Beirut: 2010

Sunday, December 19, 2010

PFB End of Year Party

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)

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

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

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.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Photo Forum Beirut is on Holiday

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:

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Open Forum #2

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.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Selected Photographers #3

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.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Photo Forum Beirut launch Open Forum #1

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.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

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

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.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Selected Photographers #2

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.

Photo Forum Beirut