I have come to be fascinated by the idea of surveillance camera footage as it relates to collective memory, history, and power. My experiences with these modes of recording echo strongly with my homeland Beirut, its intentionally negligent approach to its own history, and the control of personal, public, and intimate space.
In this series I use the webcam in a context of intimacy and domesticity as I photograph from New York my lover in Beirut, highlighting the thin line between the political and the erotic. I strive to capture these unknown spaces, caught between sojourn and homeland, loss and remembrance, identity and exile, public and private, intimacy and omniscience.
Lara Tabet (b.1983) is a Lebanese-born photographer and pathologist. She is mostly interested in ideas of memory, trauma and the city linking her personal history to that of her homeland. She has participated in several group shows both in Beirut and New York. She is currently studying at the International Center of Photography and lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Weekend portfolio selected by Quentin Bajac
