PHOTOGRAPHY
On War and Love / De la guerre et de l’amour
de Fouad Elkoury (texte et photographies)
Publication date 2007 December 3
On War & Love mixes writing and B&W/Colour photography to produce striking visuals, each composed of one or several images. It is based on a diary written during the 33 days of the war in Lebanon in the summer of 2006. It also plays the mirror game with images shot in Beirut in 1982 (the book’s first part) In 2006, between July 13th and August 14th, this series of compositions superimpose an intimate layer over a more political one, away from the regular media coverage . It’s a story about love A story about war A story about love in a time of war.
After co-founding the Arab Image Foundation in Beirut, collecting and studying historical pictures of the region, Elkoury questioned the purpose of single photographic images, away from aestheticism. His later works elaborate composite visuals (diptychs, triptychs...) to create new meanings, combining still photography, text and video. His Paris exhibition Sombres at the Maison Européenne de la Photo, with its filmed counterpart Letters to Francine (2002), revolves around wounds; Civilisation, fake = real? ponders the phenomenon of representation and replication; On war and love (2007) reflects on the dimension of intimacy in wartime.
96 pages (English & French) - 70 colour & black/white pictures - 7 inches x 7 inches - us$24 / £14