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To decide when to use shallow foundations, it is necessary to know when it is economical. It is economical when: This project is important because there is little scholarly work done on photography in the Middle East, and even less on women photographers. It focuses on gender representation in the photographs of Marie al-Khazen, a Lebanese amateur photographer, and Karimeh Abbud, a professional photographer in Palestine during the period between the 1920s and 1930s. Nachabe Taan provides a feminist reading of the images by analyzing the female photographer’s depiction of ‘modernity’ around Lebanon. We continue to re-think our approaches. Photographs are not mere images, but objects, each with a unique set of physical attributes. The information on each photograph is another layer that we do our best to preserve and highlight. This act of preserving and transmitting is akin to extending our ephemeral life and our craft. We strive to be part of a movement that expresses through arts, research and civic education the many colourful but also painful stories to tell. Without the open spaces that hold and share our memories, we lose what makes us human. We are thrilled to announce the appointment of Rana Nasser Eddin as the Arab Image Foundation’s new Director. Rana will join the AIF on March 1st, 2023. Her start will coincide with the foundation’s move to its new home. Thanks to the efforts of friends and members of the Arab Image Foundation, we continue to mobilize new and recurring individual philanthropists. A big warm thank you goes to all those individuals who encourage us to keep going no matter what. An up-to-date list of names we are indebted to can be found here.
Due to their digital remediation, the digitized images of the AIF collection are reconfigured into a new image-form with modified structures, functions, and ways of presentation, which considerably affects the way they are perceived and interpreted. [7] While their accelerated and simplified distribution as digital images might increase their visibility and value as visual information, it might also endanger their significance as historical documents. [8] “The photographic transformation of matter into information changes its tempor(e)ality as well,” says media theorist Wolfgang Ernst. He continues, Header image: 0026do00011, 0026do – Bedros Doumanian collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut. What is that we hold so dear to our hearts that needs to be protected and transmitted? Is it an object, a feeling, a passion? Regardless of its form or content, there is always a story to tell and as many more perspectives depending on what it invokes in each one of us. When we compile and organise information, we engage in creative science and technology. When we ponder what we hold in our custody and how to carry embedded stories, we are humbled by the expansive ways in which we can invite others to add layers and transmit this knowledge. In that sense, the Arab Image Foundation does not function as a conventional archive but as a bridge between archival and contemporary artistic practices. Two years ago, I was encouraged to apply to the call for director by a member of the board of directors and I could not refuse this wonderful temptation. My experience at the Arab Image Foundation has been replete with intense moments of joy and learning but also frustration and anxiety. There is a lot of weight to carry in this geographic region and in this particular period of history, making it futile to escape our realities. This heavy existence, however, is punctured by an insistence to create possibilities. Much like the photographs in our care that are fluid in their transformation across time, we are compelled to transform and engage in meaningful ways. We reached out to the members of AIF to find out what are the latest thematic conversations around photographic practices. We also turned to peer institutions for inspiration on their collective set-up and ways of working. Find out about Kristine Khouri’s latest discoveries, and learn more about Interference Archive and its alternative model. We also spoke to our colleagues at the Qatari National Library and how they celebrated the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage.Against Photography - An annotated history of the Arab Image Foundation, curated by Akram Zaatari (2017) How is colonial presence seen, felt, and documented in still and moving images? How are certain populations depicted in the photographic collections of the Arab Image Foundation – and how does the everyday feature in images taken through their lens? To mark the end of the workshop, we held a public conversation on Friday 16 December at 5pm, in which the participants shared their research and work in progress over the past two weeks. The participants were joined by Edmund and Ben, and the conversation was moderated by AIF outgoing director, Heba Hage-Felder. With an interdisciplinary approach at the intersection of photography and gender studies in the middle east, Nachabe Taan expands her research on design and visual culture in writing the first full-length study of an Arab woman photographer published in English. Matthias Winzen, “Sammeln – so selbstverständlich, so paradox,” in Deep Storage: Arsenale der Erinnerung. Sammeln, Speichern, Archivieren in der Kunst, exh. cat., eds. Matthias Winzen, et al. (Munich: Prestel, 1998), 10–19, here 10.
Parr, Martin; Badger, Gerry (2006). The Photobook: A History - Volume 2. London and New York: Phaidon. p.129. ISBN 0-7148-4433-0.The search continues for a relocation opportunity and our dream is to make it a collective endeavour. We invite our friends and readers to push us into thinking how we can bring together peer institutions, facilitators, technicians and donors around the table to invest in a cultural hub with a number of non-profit and hybrid institutions and spaces in Beirut. Embolden us to take what is nothing short of a necessary risk. Online // Hosted by Bilkent University, and in collaboration with the Arab Image Foundation and the Lebanese American University, we would like to invite you to an online conversation on Friday 11 December 2020 with author and associate professor Yasmine Nachabe Taan around her recently published book Reading Marie al-Khazen Photographs: Gender, Photography, Mandate Lebanon (Dress Cultures). This conversation will be moderated by Heba Hage-Felder, director of the Arab Image Foundation. These are some reflections that we entertain in the midst of the daily grind. It is not a luxury but a primordial incentive to give meaning to our archival work that is often repetitive, albeit necessary, to unravel a world of images for others to discover with us. It also serves to remind us of the institution we continue developing. The often invisible hands at work within the Foundation reveal many stories. Maha Kays recently joined AIF and is already evoking the legacy we each have a responsibility to carry. This publication is made possible with the support of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFA
The Eclipse of the (Fe)Male Sun is an exhibition that departs from portrait photography collections from the mid 20th century in Kuwait, Lebanon and Iran, archived at the Arab Image Foundation (AIF) in Beirut. Premodern Arab, Iranian and Islamic image culture reflected gender-fluid standards and homosocial relationships as common aspects of daily life.IASA-TC 03 The Safeguarding of the Audiovisual Heritage: Ethics, Principles and Preservation Strategy On Thursday 11 August 2022, we held a public conversation with Rawsht at our premises, centered on his father’s collection; the perilous trip it took from Suleimaniya to Turin; the first conversation with one of our board members; and how his current residency at the foundation is helping him to better care for these images. The conversation was moderated by AIF director, Heba Hage-Felder. In the context of shrinking liberties across the Arab region and beyond, Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh, Kristine Khouri and Vartan Avakian - all three board members of the Arab Image Foundation - invite students to think beyond this precarity. They put together a hands-on remote Practitioners-in-Residence for the upcoming Spring semester at the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at NYU to challenge researchers, conservationists, archivists, artists, and writers to reflect on collective work practices and governance as well as custodianship and rights. Using the diverse collections at AIF, they prod us to imagine ways of taking care of a collective inheritance and to think critically about it in relation to our times. In the second part of this workshop, led by Ben, participants developed a photobook based on the textual and visual material produced in the first part of the workshop. Visual artist Nancy Naser Al Deen assisted in the design process and Hussein Nakhal, co-founder of Waraq, demonstrated the basic stitch in photo-book making. See Joanne Garde-Hansen, Andrew Hoskins, and Anna Reading, “Introduction,” in Save As… Digital Memories, eds. Joanne Garde-Hansen, Andrew Hoskins, and Anna Reading (Hampshire and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 1–21, here 4.
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