Fadia Ahmad – Beirut

Fadia Ahmad’s photographs are conceived as paintings, in the image of the Lebanese capital, with its intricate layers, the partition, differences and  feelings. The photographs transmit the particular expression of the Lebanese art photographer, one that is sensitive and precise, poetic and humanist. The eye of someone who, during the war, was born in Spain and learned to get to know her country of origin in the late 1990s, when she studied at l’Institut d’Etudes Sceniques et Audiovisuelles (IESAV). The large format photos are in color or black and white, some are framed carefully, others snapped in an instant and sometimes, just like chromos of a dreamed-up country that reveals itself quite differently, presenting fragments of life through fragments of the city itself. More than a style, they affirm a present-day vision, a portray by an artist who refers often to the universal history of art and photography. Sometimes showing traces of war, the photos more importantly demonstrate the desire of the Lebanese people to live and thrive. These photo-paintings, far from being a documentary on the city, are a quest for light and beauty. They are witness of a search for the essence of emotion and show poetic instants nestled in the slightest details.

Fadia Ahmad – Beyrouth
20 September – 20 October 2019
Beit Beirut
Museum and Urban Center
Independence Street
Beyrouth

www.beitbeirut.org