lebanon: drive-by shooting - 1991

I returned to my native Lebanon after fifteen years of civil wars and savage invasions. It was an emotional homecoming filled with curiosity and a longing to revisit familiar places; and a car-and-driver proved to be the most efficient way to cover as much territory as possible within the ten day journey.

I had previously developed a style of photographing from a moving vehicle, in order to capture fleeting scenes as they are experienced by the driver or passenger. By shooting from a moving car, I relinquished absolute control over studied compositions, and relied mostly on quick reaction to visual cues. In this case, most of my cues included various elements of the unique lebanese landscape and the movements, gestures and postures of the inhabitants populating it.

The resulting images do not seek to embellish like those taken by tourists, of which there were almost none at the uncertain end of the war. Nor would these mundane surroundings serve as subjects of any significant interest to the local citizen. They are nevertheless objects of my own fascination with my birthplace and a land that once was my home.
A land, that despite years of strife and destruction, continued to bear a familiar and memorable character.

 
 
 
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