“Beirut is a city where monuments cannot thrive. It is experienced in the form of blurred knowledge. One that keeps escaping memory, that lacks the tangible, the concrete... What it leaves you with is a thought; an idea of a city, its vibrancy, its intricacies... and a fiction of it you once created in your imagination before you even encountered it.” (Ziad Antar)

Ziad Antar has been documenting Beirut for the past few decades: tracking its changing landscape through times of day and through the years in a compulsive manner. This photo was taken as Antar was observing the port silos, using medium format analog cameras.

Ziad Antar was born in 1978 in Sidon, Lebanon and currently lives and works in Beirut. He uses different photographic material such as expired negatives, defying the technological advances of digital photography. Antar’s work has been exhibited in international institutions and biennials such as Palais de Tokyo, Paris; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, US. Antar’s work forms part of many prestigious collections of art including Louis Vuitton Foundation, France; FNAC Centre (Fonds National d’Art Contemporain), France; Nadour Collection, Germany; The British Museum, UK; and The Kamel Lazaar Foundation, Tunisia.