لمحة - الحلقة الثانية: مجموعة نيغول بيزجيان

لمحة هي بودكاست من إعداد المؤسسة العربية للصورة بهدف تقديم المجموعات الموجودة 
arabimagefoundation.org في عهدتها عبر سلسلة من المقتطفات القصيرة. للمزيد، زوروا 

 تم الإنتاج بالتعاون مع تيونفورك ستوديوز في بيروت

"Lamha" is a podcast put together by the Arab Image Foundation with the aim of presenting the collections in its custody through a series of short snippets. For more, visit arabimagefoundation.org.

Cover image: 0170be00003, 0170be - Nigol Bezjian Collection - Arab Image Foundation, Beirut.

Produced in collaboration with Tunefork Studios, Beirut.

This podcast was first featured in Issue 2021.04 of AIF's monthly stories:
https://stories.arabimagefoundation.org/issue-202104

Lamha - Episode 02: Nigol Bezjian Collection

لمحة - الحلقة الثالثة: مجموعتا عايدة شحاده ونبيلة نشاشيبي

لمحة هي بودكاست من إعداد المؤسسة العربية للصورة بهدف تقديم المجموعات الموجودة
 arabimagefoundation.org في عهدتها عبر سلسلة من المقتطفات القصيرة. للمزيد، زوروا

تم الإنتاج بالتعاون مع تيونفورك ستوديوز في بيروت

"Lamha" is a podcast put together by the Arab Image Foundation with the aim of presenting the collections in its custody through a series of short snippets. For more, visit arabimagefoundation.org

Produced in collaboration with Tunefork Studios, Beirut.

Cover image: original lantern slide container from the Aida Shehadeh Collection - Arab Image Foundation, Beirut.

This podcast was first featured in Issue 2021.05 of AIF's monthly stories:
https://stories.arabimagefoundation.org/issue-202105

Lamha - Episode 03: Aida Shehadeh & Nabila Nashashibi Collections

لمحة - الحلقة السادسة: مجموعة لطيف العاني

لمحة هي بودكاست من إعداد المؤ سسة العربية للصورة بهدف تقديم المجموعات الموجودة 
arabimagefoundation.org في عهدتها عبر سلسلة من المقتطفات القصيرة. للمزيد، زوروا

تم الإنتاج بالتعاون مع تيونفورك ستوديوز في بيروت

"Lamha" is a podcast put together by the Arab Image Foundation with the aim of presenting the collections in its custody through a series of short snippets. For more, visit arabimagefoundation.org.

Cover image:
0190an00043, 0190an – Latif Al Ani collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut.

Produced in collaboration with Tunefork Studios, Beirut.

This podcast was first featured in Issue 2021.08 of AIF's monthly stories:
https://stories.arabimagefoundation.org/issue-202108
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𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣
The Latif Al Ani collection, which comprises nearly 2000 paper prints and film negatives, is a testament to Al Ani’s enduring preoccupation with depicting his homeland, Iraq. Spanning the 1950s and 1970s, the collection brings together images that document the mundaneness and vitality of the everyday; as well as the country’s cinematic, if often barren, landscapes. It also includes personal photographs, in addition to others that he took for the Iraqi Ministry of Culture.
 
Among the notable subjects photographed by Al Ani are Saddam Hussein and the Shah of Iran Mohamad Reza Pahlavi. But he was also drawn to his fellow citizens, capturing farmers, fishermen, jewelers, and the Yazidi community. Conversely, the collection is home to images of infrastructure, the petroleum and power industries, and various political rallies, bearing witness to the industrialization of Iraq in the mid-20th century.     
 
Latif Al Ani is known to have experimented with different photographic techniques, including aerial photography; he took myriads of aerial shots of Iraq, which feature in the collection. You will also find personal images he took during his trips to East Germany and the United States, where his work was being exhibited.
 
In the year 2000, Yto Barrada met Al Ani on a research trip to Iraq, where she selected a large number of negatives from his collection that were subsequently acquired by the AIF. He would go on to deposit an additional collection of negatives at the Foundation, including those taken in Germany. In 2019, Al Ani donated 67 additional paper prints, primarily made up of photographs of him that were taken by his friends and colleagues between 1955 and 2018.

Latif Al Ani is celebrated as one of Iraq’s most prominent living photographers, and continues to be solicited for exhibitions and documentaries to this day.

Lamha - Episode 06: Latif Al Ani collection

لمحة - الحلقة السابعة: مجموعة عيسى توما

لمحة هي بودكاست من إعداد المؤ سسة العربية للصورة بهدف تقديم المجموعات الموجودة 
arabimagefoundation.org في عهدتها عبر سلسلة من المقتطفات القصيرة. للمزيد، زوروا

تم الإنتاج بالتعاون مع تيونفورك ستوديوز في بيروت

"Lamha" is a podcast put together by the Arab Image Foundation with the aim of presenting the collections in its custody through a series of short snippets. For more, visit arabimagefoundation.org.

Cover image:
0126to00058, 0126to – Issa Touma collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut.

Produced in collaboration with Tunefork Studios, Beirut.

This podcast was first featured in Issue 2021.09 of AIF's monthly stories:
https://stories.arabimagefoundation.org/issue-202109
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𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣
The seventh episode of Lamha presents the Issa Touma collection, which comprises 71 paper prints, 7 glass plates, and 55 film negatives. The photographic objects in this collection depict a miscellany of portraits taken by an unidentified studio photographer in Aleppo, dating back to the 1950s and the 1960s. 

Portraits of school students; university students; scouts; varsity teams; bodybuilders; religious figures; newlyweds; and military men; all feature in this collection. The diverseness of their profiles notwithstanding, the photographed subjects in this collection all share a common, if slightly eerie, characteristic: the daunting neutrality of their facial expression. The people depicted in these photographs, be they children or wedded couples, are neither smiling nor frowning; happy nor sad. It seems that such dispassionate demeanor was in vogue at the time, the priority being the overall aesthetics and composition of the image, with a special emphasis being placed on the subjects’ hairdo, dress, makeup, and props. Pistols, daggers, military uniform for children, and keffiyye, are not uncommon figurations in these images.

Issa Touma is a photographer from Aleppo, and the founder of Le Pont Gallery. He was among those who helped Fouad Elkhoury and Akram Zaatari during their research trips in Aleppo in the early days of the Arab Image Foundation. These images from his collection were deposited at the foundation in the fall of 1998.

Lamha - Episode 07: Issa Touma collection

لمحة - الحلقة الثامنة: مجموعتا شوقي مرازي وميشال بيرالدي

لمحة هي بودكاست من إعداد المؤ سسة العربية للصورة بهدف تقديم المجموعات الموجودة
arabimagefoundation.org في عهدتها عبر سلسلة من المقتطفات القصيرة. للمزيد، زوروا

تم الإنتاج بالتعاون مع تيونفورك ستوديوز في بيروت

"Lamha" is a podcast put together by the Arab Image Foundation with the aim of presenting the collections in its custody through a series of short snippets. For more, visit arabimagefoundation.org.

Cover image:
0222pe00008, 0222pe – Michel Peraldi collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut.

Produced in collaboration with Tunefork Studios, Beirut.

This podcast was first featured in Issue 2021.10 of AIF's monthly stories:
https://stories.arabimagefoundation.org/issue-202110
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𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣
The eighth episode of Lamha foregrounds the Michel Peraldi collection from Morocco, and the Chaouki Merazi collection from Algeria. These two collections are presented side by side, not because of the geographical proximity of their provenance, but rather, to compare the different ways through which we attempt to unpack these photographic collections, especially when we have very little information about them.

 The Michel Peraldi collection comprises 14 glass plates depicting two Moroccan villages in the 1930s, among which are views of the streets, souks, houses, and landscapes. These images share an unusual element: the presence of men dressed in tuxedos, while others around them are wearing the jalabiya.  The lack of information around these photographs opens up myriad questions: who took these pictures, and to what end? Were they captured for documentary or aesthetic purposes? Did the photographer intend to frame and represent these villages in a certain way? These questions make way for a multitude of readings around these collections, depending on the researchers’ subjectivities on the one hand, and the photographs’ objective elements on the other.

Chaouki Merazi’s collection, which comes from Algeria, brings together 150 portraits from Studio Merazi. The studio’s founder, Ismail Merazi, learned the fundamentals of photography from his father, Belkassem, who was in charge of transporting the equipment of war correspondents and photojournalists during the First World War. Alongside photographs of children in their first communion attire, the collection includes a number of headshots featuring the same subjects in two different poses. One of them is a passport photo, in which they are looking straight at the camera;  and in the other, their posture is slightly tilted, and they are flashing a smile. This collection found a new home at the Arab Image Foundation following Lara Baladi’s visit to Studio Merazi in 2009. There, she met Chaouki Merazi, Ismail Merazi’s son, who donated these photographs to the AIF. The information we have about this collection sheds light on the studio’s history, but there’s always room for new and different readings of the photographs that go beyond the knowledge we already have.

The Michel Peraldi and Chaoui Merazi collections can be viewed on our platform here:

http://arabimagefoundation.org/Collection-&37&internalRef-0222pe-Michel-Peraldi-Collection

http://arabimagefoundation.org/Collection-&77&internalRef-0290me-Chaouki-Merazi-Collection

Lamha - Episode 08: Chaouki Merazi and Michel Peraldi collections

لمحة - الحلقة التاسعة: مجموعتا ساندرين فارس وأليسيا سيمون دو عازار

لمحة هي بودكاست من إعداد المؤ سسة العربية للصورة بهدف تقديم المجموعات الموجودة
arabimagefoundation.org في عهدتها عبر سلسلة من المقتطفات القصيرة. للمزيد، زوروا

.تم الإنتاج بالتعاون مع تيونفورك ستوديوز في بيروت

"Lamha" is a podcast put together by the Arab Image Foundation with the aim of presenting the collections in its custody through a series of short snippets. For more, visit arabimagefoundation.org.

Cover image:
0230fa00005, 0230fa – Sandrine Farès collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut.

Produced in collaboration with Tunefork Studios, Beirut.

This podcast was first featured in Issue 2021.11 of AIF's monthly stories:
https://stories.arabimagefoundation.org/issue-202111
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𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣
The ninth episode of Lamha presents two collections from the Lebanese diaspora in South America and Africa.

The first of these is the Alicia Simon de Azar collection hailing from Argentina, which comprises 12 paper prints that date back to the 1940s and 1950s. These images depict the Doumit, Simon, and Moukarzel families, along with other members of the Lebanese diaspora in Argentina, with inscriptions in French on the back of each photograph, indicating the date and the names of the people present. Most of these images are of landscapes and group photos taken during excursions in Mendoza, among other Argentinian cities. The collection also includes a formal photograph with the Lebanese Ambassador to Argentina during the opening ceremony of the street named after the Republic of Lebanon (La República del Líbano). These images bring together the personal and the collective, picturing both intimate moments shared between Alicia and her family, as well as views of the Lebanese diaspora at large – a deliberate choice made by Alicia when she donated this collection to the AIF in 2003, upon meeting with researcher Carolina Furque.

The Sandrine Farès collection brings together 172 photographs of the Issa Nemer and Assaf families, who left Lebanon for Senegal in the 1930s, establishing a grocery store that is depicted in some of the images. This collection is marked by an impressive range of activity across time and space, spanning two decades and six countries, including Lebanon, Yemen, France, Brazil, Iraq, and Côte d’Ivoire. These photographs are imbued with a poignant, nearly voyeuristic intimacy, manifesting both in the backdrop against which the shots are taken – be it a bedroom, a backyard, or the inside of a car – and in the inscriptions on the verso of the photographs, which range from descriptions to dedications in both French and vernacular Arabic. One such photograph has the following message on the back: “With best wishes – I’m sending you here my sketch (رسم), in the hopes that I’ll be able to send you a better one next time.” The word “sketch” is used here to denote the photograph itself, which was commonly referred to as such in the 20th century.

The sheer number of people depicted in these images, not to mention their intimate nature, evokes important questions. Who has the right to handle these images – and who owns them? Should each person pictured in these photographs give their consent before said images are used? Though the answers to these questions may not always be clear-cut, these images remain an important document and record of the lives of the Lebanese diaspora, across different geographical and cultural contexts.

You can explore these two collections on our digital platform through the links below.

Alicia Simon de Azar collection:
http://arabimagefoundation.org/getEntityFront?page=CollectionEntity_details&entityName=CollectionEntity&idEntity=60

Sandrine Farès collection:
http://arabimagefoundation.org/Collection-&44&internalRef-0230fa-Sandrine-Far%C3%A8s-Collection

Lamha – episode 09: Sandrine Farès and Alicia Simon de Azar collections

لمحة - الحلقة التاسعة: مجموعة فان ليو

لمحة هي بودكاست من إعداد المؤ سسة العربية للصورة بهدف تقديم المجموعات الموجودة
arabimagefoundation.org في عهدتها عبر سلسلة من المقتطفات القصيرة. للمزيد، زوروا

.تم الإنتاج بالتعاون مع تيونفورك ستوديوز في بيروت

"Lamha" is a podcast put together by the Arab Image Foundation with the aim of presenting the collections in its custody through a series of short snippets. For more, visit arabimagefoundation.org.

Cover image:
0081va00003, 0081va – Van Leo collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut.

Produced in collaboration with Tunefork Studios, Beirut.

This podcast was first featured in Issue 2021.12 of AIF's monthly stories:
https://stories.arabimagefoundation.org/issue-202112
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𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣
The tenth episode of Lamha presents a collection that has captivated the hearts and souls of all those who have seen it: the Van Leo collection. Leon Boyadjian, who came to be known as Van Leo, was one of the Arab region’s most compelling studio photographers and portraitists, gaining much recognition in Cairo between the 1940s and the 1980s. Known for photographing iconic figures in the worlds of cinema and music, including Sherihan and Omar Khorshid, what is arguably his most dashing subject was closer to home: Van Leo himself.

You can explore this collection on our digital platform through this link:
http://arabimagefoundation.org/Collection-&16&internalRef-0081va-Van-Leo-Collection

Lamha – episode 10: Van Leo collection

لمحة - الحلقة الحادية عشر: مجموعة أوجين كوتار

لمحة هي بودكاست من إعداد المؤ سسة العربية للصورة بهدف تقديم المجموعات الموجودة
arabimagefoundation.org في عهدتها عبر سلسلة من المقتطفات القصيرة. للمزيد، زوروا

.تم الإنتاج بالتعاون مع تيونفورك ستوديوز في بيروت

"Lamha" is a podcast put together by the Arab Image Foundation with the aim of presenting the collections in its custody through a series of short snippets. For more, visit arabimagefoundation.org.

Cover image:
0300co00023, 0300co – Eugène Cottard collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut.

Produced in collaboration with Tunefork Studios, Beirut.

This podcast was first featured in Issue 2022.01 of AIF's monthly stories:
https://stories.arabimagefoundation.org/issue-202201
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𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣
Eugène Cottard was a French doctor. Born in Annecy, France in 1873, he moved to modern-day Lebanon (then-Greater Syria) in 1908 to work as a surgeon. Upon his arrival to the port of Beirut, Cottard was taken aback by how different his newfound home seemed to be, the weather, landscape, and culture so unlike what he had in mind. He quietly observed this new reality of his, and attempted to document it through a stereo camera, a device with two lenses that functions by emulating human vision, capturing the same view twice from each lens. The resulting image is printed on a glass plate and can be viewed with a special binocular-like device called a stereoscope, which produces a three-dimensional view of the image.

Cottard lived with his family in the Kantari area in Beirut until 1914, when he enlisted in the French army. Four years later, with the first world war coming to an end, he returned to Beirut, and his wife came to pass shortly after. He mourned her death by going on expeditions across Greater Syria and Mesopotamia, ultimately reaching Iran (Persia). He then remarried and resumed his voyage, traveling to modern-day Jordan, Palestine, and Egypt. Cottard helped to co-found the Hôtel-Dieu de France hospital in Beirut, where he worked as a physician and lecturer until he retired in 1946.

The Eugène Cottard collection comprises 1,229 images, captured by Cottard during the time he spent in Greater Syria. These views document the evolution of social life and the industrial developments over the span of forty critical years in the history of the country and the region.

Unlike many such pictures taken at the time, the images in this collection shy away from romanticizing the local landscape or fetishizing the provincial residents and communities. Armed with his stereo camera, Cottard would simply capture the commonplace, if often mundane, views he came across every day. While professional photographers who visited the region were typically interested in documenting the city center, Cottard favoured the residential neighborhoods of the suburbs of Beirut – including Ghalghoul, Zokak el-Blatt, and Ras el-Nabeh – as well as other tourist attractions in the coastal cities of modern-day Lebanon and the region.

Cottard’s images are akin to a visual diary, through which he attempted to make sense of this new world he inhabited, and the places and sites he frequented. This collection is an important record to historians, researchers, and amateurs alike, and a helpful tool that allows the viewer to accompany Cottard on his journeys and promenades, and to experience these familiar landscapes in the same curiosity and novelty that Cottard managed to capture.

You can explore this collection on our digital platform through the link below.
http://arabimagefoundation.org/getEntityFront?page=CollectionEntity_details&entityName=CollectionEntity&idEntity=80

Lamha – episode 11: Eugène Cottard collection

لمحة - الحلقة الثانية عشر: مجموعة رضا عابديني

لمحة هي بودكاست من إعداد المؤ سسة العربية للصورة بهدف تقديم المجموعات الموجودة
arabimagefoundation.org في عهدتها عبر سلسلة من المقتطفات القصيرة. للمزيد، زوروا

.تم الإنتاج بالتعاون مع تيونفورك ستوديوز في بيروت

"Lamha" is a podcast put together by the Arab Image Foundation with the aim of presenting the collections in its custody through a series of short snippets. For more, visit arabimagefoundation.org.

Cover image:
0264ab00010, 0264ab – Reza Abedini collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut.

Produced in collaboration with Tunefork Studios, Beirut.

This podcast was first featured in Issue 2022.02 of AIF's monthly stories:
https://stories.arabimagefoundation.org/issue-202202
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𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣
The 12th episode of Lamha presents the Reza Abedini collection, which is composed of 22 glass plates documenting public life in Qajar-era Iran (1789 to 1925). The collection brings together views of streets, souks, and landscapes; shots of men dancing or youths playing; images of horses and deer; and depictions of public festivities and ancient sites.

Little is known of when these photographs were taken, but one of the inscriptions written in French on an image of Doshan Tappeh, Tehran, is dated 10 December 1899.

Featured in this collection is an image that seems to be taken at a bazaar, on the sidelines of which are men and children of varying age. Standing in the middle is a man with a turban on his head, holding a serpent in his right and left hands, and looking straight at the camera, smiling faintly. This man is likely to be a snake charmer, the likes of whom still exist in various corners of the world, especially in souks and touristic sites.

The Reza Abedini collection documents a time in the history of Iran when such photographic documentation was rare. These images are thus an important record of the public and daily lives at the time, and a microcosm of the social and economic realities of Iran at the turn of the century.

When the Arab Image Foundation was founded, Iran was beyond the geographic scope within which photographic objects were collected. But in 2004, Negar Azimi went on a research trip to Iran, and was able to gather a number of collections that shed light on the photographic practices of the country. Artist Reza Abedini donated these 22 glass plates to Negar, after which they came to be in the care of the foundation.

You can explore this collection on our digital platform through this link:
http://arabimagefoundation.com/Collection-&72&internalRef-0264ab-Reza-Abedini-Collection

Lamha – episode 12: Reza Abedini collection

لمحة - الحلقة الثالثة عشر: مجموعتا ألفريدو يازبك وأرمان

لمحة هي بودكاست من إعداد المؤ سسة العربية للصورة بهدف تقديم المجموعات الموجودة
arabimagefoundation.org في عهدتها عبر سلسلة من المقتطفات القصيرة. للمزيد، زوروا

.تم الإنتاج بالتعاون مع تيونفورك ستوديوز في بيروت

"Lamha" is a podcast put together by the Arab Image Foundation with the aim of presenting the collections in its custody through a series of short snippets. For more, visit arabimagefoundation.org.

Cover image:
0043ar00043, 0043ar – Armand collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut.

Produced in collaboration with Tunefork Studios, Beirut.

This podcast was first featured in Issue 2022.03 of AIF's monthly stories:
https://stories.arabimagefoundation.org/issue-202203
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𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣
The 13th episode of Lamha presents the Alfredo Yazbek collection from the Lebanese diaspora in Mexico; and the Armand collection from Egypt.
 
The Alfredo Yazbek collection comprises 266 paper prints and 278 film negatives dating back to the 1940s and 1950s. Most of these images are studio portraits taken by Alfredo Yazbek himself in his studio in Mexico City, and captured against staged backdrops and dramatic lighting, as though the photographs’ subjects were celebrities. This makeshift stardom is also manifested in the theatrical manner in which people pose in front of the camera, which sets these studio portraits apart from more traditional ones. This collection gives insight to the inner workings of photographic studios, with drafts of prints being stamped with phrases like “la major” and “buena” (“the best” and “good”), which are indicative of the quality of the prints. Some negatives also bear markings, designating which parts of the image require retouching. Several negatives, for instance, are marked at the level of the neck, under the eyes, around the mouth, and on the cheeks and forehead, suggesting that these are the parts from which wrinkles should be removed. The backs of these draft prints include detailed information on the subjects’ skin tone, as well as the color of their eyes, hair, and clothes. These images having been developed in black and white, knowledge of these hues and colors was essential to achieve optimal results.
 
The Armand collection brings together 57 paper prints, 70 glass plates, and 1,018 film negatives, most of which were taken by Armenak Arzrouni, better known as Armand, which is also the name of his photo studio in Cairo. Armand took myriads of portraits of royalty, politicians, and celebrities, including Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, Queen Narimane Sadek, Mohammed Abdel Wahab, Leila Mourad, Muhammad Idris bin Muhammad al-Mahdi as-Senussi, and Lola Sidky, whose portrait graces the AIF office in Beirut. Featured in the Armand collection are also images of ornate home interiors. One such image that stands out is a picture of a kitchen with a man sitting behind a cabinet in the far right corner. Though his features aren’t clear, it appears from his attire that he may be one of the people who work in the house. This image may seem perfectly ordinary to some, but it sheds light on the following: all the personalities photographed by Armand are pictured in their best possible way, even if they are frowned upon by the majority of the population, or even by history itself.
 
The Alfredo Yazbek and Armand collections depict a so-called golden age, but a closer examination of these images reveals a reality that cannot be further from this ideological (and falsely idyllic) view of this period in time.

You can explore these two collections on our digital platform through the links below.

Alfredo Yazbek collection:
http://arabimagefoundation.com/Collection-&59&internalRef-0245ys-Alfredo-Yazbek-Collection

Armand collection:
http://arabimagefoundation.com/Collection-&6&internalRef-0043ar-Armand-Collection

Lamha – episode 13: Alfredo Yazbek and Armand collections

لمحة - الحلقة الرابعة عشر: تجريب مع سبق الإصرار

لمحة هي بودكاست من إعداد المؤ سسة العربية للصورة بهدف تقديم المجموعات الموجودة
arabimagefoundation.org في عهدتها عبر سلسلة من المقتطفات القصيرة. للمزيد، زوروا

.تم الإنتاج بالتعاون مع تيونفورك ستوديوز في بيروت

"Lamha" is a podcast put together by the Arab Image Foundation with the aim of presenting the collections in its custody through a series of short snippets. For more, visit arabimagefoundation.org.

Cover image:
0061ta00016, 0061ta – A.Tazi collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut.

Produced in collaboration with Tunefork Studios, Beirut.

This podcast was first featured in Issue 2022.04 of AIF's monthly stories:
https://stories.arabimagefoundation.org/issue-202204
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𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣
The 14th episode of Lamha presents 14 photographic objects that celebrate experimentation in all its forms, from multiple exposure to photomontage. The images –which come from Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Morocco, and Iran – are listed here in numerical order, and may be viewed via the link below:
https://stories.arabimagefoundation.org/issue-202204

Whether created by accident or deliberately, the uncanny effects produced in these images generate a multitude of readings, bringing to the fore the playful nature of photography.

This is Omar Thawabeh. The first seven images presented in today’s episode are multiple exposure shots. The first of these was taken by Marie El-Khazen who, according to photographer and AIF collection researcher Paul Gorra, perhaps did not intend to use double exposure to produce this photograph. The resulting image is of a ghostly man and a woman who appear to be in the same frame at the same time, but it is only through double exposure that they stand side by side. Double exposure is also used in images 2, 3, and 4, leading to a mix of surrealism and comedy.

Image #5 from the George Mikaelian family collection is composed of three main elements: a man, a woman, and a violin. The readings here are endless, prompting questions about the spatiotemporal nature of the image, and the people and objects depicted within it. Image #6 from the Tufic Yazbek collection from Mexico evokes a similar line of questioning.

Image #7 from the Studio Sayah collection, taken in Mashhad, Iran, depicts three barefoot men holding rosaries, a religious monument behind them, blended into the picture. Does the picture document a real or imagined spiritual visit?

The second set of pictures in this podcast illustrates a different experimental technique: photomontage. Image #8 from the Yacub Katimi collection depicts both the dead sea and rocky landforms from nearby valleys, whereas image 9 illustrates the use of photomontage in advertisements. Finally, images 10 and 11 from the Senegalese diaspora speak volumes of the relationship between smoking, masculinity, and consumerism.

Lamha – episode 14: How to get away with experimentation

لمحة - الحلقة الخامسة عشر: مجموعة أرشاغ

لمحة هي بودكاست من إعداد المؤ سسة العربية للصورة بهدف تقديم المجموعات الموجودة
arabimagefoundation.org في عهدتها عبر سلسلة من المقتطفات القصيرة. للمزيد، زوروا

.تم الإنتاج بالتعاون مع تيونفورك ستوديوز في بيروت

"Lamha" is a podcast put together by the Arab Image Foundation with the aim of presenting the collections in its custody through a series of short snippets. For more, visit arabimagefoundation.org.

Cover image:
0138ar00005, 0138ar – Arshag collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut.

Produced in collaboration with Tunefork Studios, Beirut.

This podcast was first featured in Issue 2022.05 of AIF's monthly stories:
https://stories.arabimagefoundation.org/issue-202205
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𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣
The 15th episode of Lamha presents the Arshag collection from Egypt, one of the AIF’s lesser-known collections, though it is brimming with rare photographic gems. Comprised of 46 paper prints, 3 glass plates, and 118 film negatives, this collection brings together a miscellany of images, including portraits, shots of archeological landmarks and tourist sites in Egypt, family photographs, and images of retail and industrial spaces.
 
The images in the Arshag collection were captured by Arshag Karaguezian, the owner of Arshag Photo Studio on Abdel Khalek Tharwat street in Cairo, between the 1940s and the 1950s. According to Akram Zaatari, Arshag became the personal photographer of King Farouk in 1934, though the royal family seldom appears in this collection. They are only featured in two photographs: the first is a portrait of Queen Farida, King Farouk’s first wife; and the second is a portrait of King Farouk with King Abdul Aziz Al Saoud of Saudi Arabia.
 
The bulk of the collection brings together portraits of musicians, bands, and flamingo dancers. Of note are a series of portraits of a Baladi dancer (bellydancer), whose name is Mlle Ketty according to the inscriptions on the back of the photographs. The notes on the verso say “danseuse” (in French), though there are also inscriptions in Arabic that indicate she has “acted with Ismail (?).” Whether she was a singer or a dancer (or both), we cannot know for sure.
 
Fouad El Khoury and Akram Zaatari met Edouard in 1998, he complained of the level of deterioration of his father’s collection, which became a fascinating case study of the different forms of damage that impact negatives, adding lines and colors to images as a result of nothing else other than the passing of time.

You can explore this collection on our digital platform through this link:
http://arabimagefoundation.com/Collection-&27&internalRef-0138ar-Arshag-Collection

Lamha - episode 15: Arshag Collection

لمحة - الحلقة السادسة عشر: لمحة سريعة عن آخر ٢٥ عامًا

لمحة هي بودكاست من إعداد المؤ سسة العربية للصورة بهدف تقديم المجموعات الموجودة
arabimagefoundation.org في عهدتها عبر سلسلة من المقتطفات القصيرة. للمزيد، زوروا

.تم الإنتاج بالتعاون مع تيونفورك ستوديوز في بيروت

"Lamha" is a podcast put together by the Arab Image Foundation with the aim of presenting the collections in its custody through a series of short snippets. For more, visit arabimagefoundation.org.

Cover image:
0002kh00061, 0002kh – Fouad El Khoury collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut.

Produced in collaboration with Tunefork Studios, Beirut.

This podcast was first featured in Issue 2022.06 of AIF's monthly stories:
https://stories.arabimagefoundation.org/issue-202206
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𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣
When the Arab Image Foundation was first established, the first photographic objects to become part of the foundation’s core collection were those of the families of the founding members: Fouad ElKhoury, Samer Mohdad, and Akram Zaatari. Twenty-five years and more than 300 collections later, what are the commonalities between collections that date back to the early 20th century and that others from the 2000s?

The first two collections to be in the custody of the AIF are the Alfred Pharaon and Fouad ElKhoury collections, both of which were brought to the foundation by founding member Fouad ElKhoury. These collections bring together images from the families of Fouad’s maternal and paternal grandfathers. You’ll notice that some people are inevitably depicted in both of these collections, given the familial connections between the two on the one hand, and the overlapping social and geographical contexts that link them, on the other.

These collections feature images of members from the Pharaon, ElKhoury, and Sursock families, including a picture of Bechara ElKhoury, the first Lebanese president post-independence. Most of the photographs in these collections were captured in and around Beirut, showing major landmarks such as the hippodrome, the Saint George hotel, and the Bhannes psychiatric hospital, which was founded by the Daughters of Charity. These images depict the hospital’s patients, in addition to the nuns and construction workers who worked there. One image of note depicts architect Fouad ElKhoury (Fouad ElKhoury’s grandfather and namesake) with his partner Maroun Ghammachi, overseeing all of these projects.

One of the most recent collections to join the foundation is the Cold Cuts collection, which was brought to the AIF by Cold Cuts editor-in-chief Mohamad Abdouni. This collection is primarily made up of images of Em Abed, one of the ten women that Abdouni interviewed and worked with while developing Treat Me Like Your Mother: Trans* Histories From Beirut’s Forgotten Past. The photographs were taken between the 1980s and early 2000s across Lebanon – including Keserouan, the Metn area, the Beqaa, Baalbek, and Beirut – with some images being shot in Syria. The collection also brings together images from the archives of Mama Jad, who is another woman who participated in the project, in addition to polaroids that document the photo shoots that Cold Cuts held with these women in 2019. 

A gap of almost a hundred years separates the Alfred Pharaon and Cold Cuts collections, but what brings them together is one and the same: Beirut and the family. In the case of the Alfred Pharaon collection, family is those with whom blood ties are shared; in the case of the Cold Cuts collection, family is those you choose to surround yourself with.

Part of the Fouad ElKhoury collection is available online through the UCLA Library website. The Cold Cuts collection is featured in both the print and digital copies of Treat Me Like Your Mother: Trans* Histories From Beirut’s Forgotten Past, published by Cold Cuts with the support of the Arab Image Foundation, the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Beirut, Helem, Mophradat, Station, and Studio Safar.

Lamha - episode 16: 25 years at a glance

لمحة - الحلقة السابعة عشر: مجموعات الجالية اللبنانيّة في المكسيك

لمحة هي بودكاست من إعداد المؤ سسة العربية للصورة بهدف تقديم المجموعات الموجودة
arabimagefoundation.org في عهدتها عبر سلسلة من المقتطفات القصيرة. للمزيد، زوروا

.تم الإنتاج بالتعاون مع تيونفورك ستوديوز في بيروت

"Lamha" is a podcast put together by the Arab Image Foundation with the aim of presenting the collections in its custody through a series of short snippets. For more, visit arabimagefoundation.org.

Cover image:
0242ac00222, 0242ac – Jorge Abud Chami collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut.

Produced in collaboration with Tunefork Studios, Beirut.

This podcast was first featured in Issue 2022.07 of AIF's monthly stories:
https://stories.arabimagefoundation.org/issue-202207
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𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣

The 17th episode of Lamha sheds light on the 15 diasporic collections from Mexico that are in the custody of the Arab Image Foundation. This large figure speaks volumes of the large number of Lebanese immigrants who settled abroad, building new families and communities of their own, both of which are documented in these photographs.

Featured in these collections are portraits, landscapes, candid shots, and studio photographs. These images were brought to the foundation following founding member Fouad Elkhoury’s research trip to Mexico, in which Carolina Furque accompanied him on his visits to Lebanese families.

The Jorge Abud Chami collection is one of the most diverse collections among the fifteen, bringing together touristic shots of Lebanon and other Arab countries; images of Lebanese and Arab celebrities; and pictures of Lebanese expats during their visit to Lebanon. One such image was captured during a ceremony in which presents were distributed to children. On the photograph’s verso is the following annotation: “These presents are from the generous expats.” As for the celebrities and public figures depicted in these photographs, they include Sabah, Kamal Jumblatt, Pierre El Gemayel, and Farid El Atrash, who wrote the following note on the back of his photograph: “Dedicated to Mr. Salim Abbud, owner of the Gherbal Magazine, and its readers.”

These 15 collections, numbered 0231-0245, are all available on our website. You may view them here: http://arabimagefoundation.com/Collection

Lamha - episode 17: Diasporic collections from Mexico

لمحة - الحلقة الثامنة عشر: مجموعة بيدروس دومانيان

لمحة هي بودكاست من إعداد المؤ سسة العربية للصورة بهدف تقديم المجموعات الموجودة
arabimagefoundation.org في عهدتها عبر سلسلة من المقتطفات القصيرة. للمزيد، زوروا

.تم الإنتاج بالتعاون مع تيونفورك ستوديوز في بيروت

"Lamha" is a podcast put together by the Arab Image Foundation with the aim of presenting the collections in its custody through a series of short snippets. For more, visit arabimagefoundation.org.

Cover image:
0026do00016, 0026do – Bedros Doumanian collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut.

Produced in collaboration with Tunefork Studios, Beirut.

This podcast was first featured in Issue 2022.08 of AIF's monthly stories:
https://stories.arabimagefoundation.org/issue-202208
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𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣

The 18th episode of Lamha presents the Bedros Doumanian collection from Amman, which comprises 67 paper prints, 4 glass plates, and 39 film negatives dating back to the 1930s to the 1960s. Bringing together studio portraits from Doumanian’s London Studio, in addition to family photographs, funerals, as well as shots depicting the destruction of airfields in the West Bank during the Six-Day War, this collection evokes reflection on the commemoration of both the living and the dead, and how photographic objects in and of themselves can be ruins of a time that has passed.

You can explore this collection on our digital platform through this link:
http://arabimagefoundation.org/getEntityFront?page=CollectionEntity_details&entityName=CollectionEntity&idEntity=4

Lamha - episode 18: Bedros Doumanian collection

لمحة - الحلقة التاسعة عشر: مجموعة عائلة مدوّر

لمحة هي بودكاست من إعداد المؤ سسة العربية للصورة بهدف تقديم المجموعات الموجودة
arabimagefoundation.org في عهدتها عبر سلسلة من المقتطفات القصيرة. للمزيد، زوروا

.تم الإنتاج بالتعاون مع تيونفورك ستوديوز في بيروت

"Lamha" is a podcast put together by the Arab Image Foundation with the aim of presenting the collections in its custody through a series of short snippets. For more, visit arabimagefoundation.org.

Cover image:
0284me01313, 0284me – Medawar family collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut.

Produced in collaboration with Tunefork Studios, Beirut.

This podcast was first featured in Issue 2022.09 of AIF's monthly stories:
https://stories.arabimagefoundation.org/issue-202209
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𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣

The 19th episode of Lamha presents the Alexandre Medawar collection, which comprises 566 paper prints and over a thousand medium format and 35mm film negatives. A rare record of the transition from one decade to the next across different cities; and from black and white to colour photography; this collection gives insights into the life and social circle of Mario Malek Medawar, a mechanical engineer and photography enthusiast who took the majority of these images. 

You can explore this collection on our digital platform through this link:
http://arabimagefoundation.com/getEntityFront?page=CollectionEntity_details&entityName=CollectionEntity&idEntity=76

Lamha - episode 19: Medawar family collection

لمحة - الحلقة العشرين: مجموعة ستوديو روي

لمحة هي بودكاست من إعداد المؤ سسة العربية للصورة بهدف تقديم المجموعات الموجودة
arabimagefoundation.org في عهدتها عبر سلسلة من المقتطفات القصيرة. للمزيد، زوروا

.تم الإنتاج بالتعاون مع تيونفورك ستوديوز في بيروت

"Lamha" is a podcast put together by the Arab Image Foundation with the aim of presenting the collections in its custody through a series of short snippets. For more, visit arabimagefoundation.org.

Cover image:
0072sr00025, 0072sr – Studio Roy collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut.

Produced in collaboration with Tunefork Studios, Beirut.

This podcast was first featured in Issue 2022.10 of AIF's monthly stories:
https://stories.arabimagefoundation.org/issue-202210
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𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣

The 20th episode of Lamha presents the Studio Roy collection, made up of 18 paper prints, 20 glass plates, and 418 film negatives. Operating in Alexandria in the 1950s and 1960s, the studio was initially owned by Garbis Nazaretian before it was acquired by Shaaban Abel Hamid in 1959. The photographic objects in this collection depict a wide range of subjects, from studio portraits and outdoor shots to images of household appliances and industrial sites, devoid of human presence.

Lamha - episode 20: Studio Roy collection

لمحة - الحلقة الواحد وعشرون: مجموعة عائلة عبد الهادي

لمحة هي بودكاست من إعداد المؤ سسة العربية للصورة بهدف تقديم المجموعات الموجودة
arabimagefoundation.org في عهدتها عبر سلسلة من المقتطفات القصيرة. للمزيد، زوروا

.تم الإنتاج بالتعاون مع تيونفورك ستوديوز في بيروت

"Lamha" is a podcast put together by the Arab Image Foundation with the aim of presenting the collections in its custody through a series of short snippets. For more, visit arabimagefoundation.org.

Cover image:
0024ab00007, 0024ab – Abdel Hadi family collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut.

Produced in collaboration with Tunefork Studios, Beirut.
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𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣
The 21st episode of Lamha presents the Abdel Hadi family collection, which comprises 24 paper prints taken in Palestine and Jordan between the 1920s and the 1960s. Its humble size notwithstanding, the images in this collection range from family photographs to shots of formal officials and even landscapes, including certain areas in Palestine – such as the beach in Jaffa – that have become nearly impossible to reach after the Nakba of 1948.

Lamha - episode 21: Abdel Hadi family collection

The Arab Image Foundation is an independent association forging new pathways for photography and image practices. Uniquely positioned at the intersection of artistic creation, research, and archiving, we explore, question and confront the complex social and political realities of our times.

Our collection of over 500,000 photographic objects and documents from and related to the Middle East, North Africa and the Arab diaspora has been gradually assembled over the last 20 years by artists and researchers and through donations. With a critical and innovative approach, we collect, rethink, preserve, activate and understand these photographs through their multiple strata, and enrich the collection in the process.

The AIF looks to engage a broad regional and international community in experimental thought and practice that extends the photographic concept. We offer an inspiring and welcoming environment open to everyone: through our digital platform, our space in Beirut, and our projects and partnerships. Artists, researchers, students, cultural practitioners and the general public are warmly encouraged to learn, discover, create, and exchange ideas.

For more information, visit http://arabimagefoundation.org

Cover image: Advertising campaign for Luxor Rugs, photographed by Tufic Yazbek in 1967 in Mexico City, Mexico. Chromogenic process transparency on cellulose acetate film, large format. 0243ya00276, 0243ya - Tufic Yazbek Collection - Arab Image Foundation, Beirut.

Arab Image Foundation

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