Beirut

Phantomas

Phantomas

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Oct 15, 2008
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A couple of weeks ago I packed my bag with D700, 35mm and 50mm (ended up using 35mm 90% of the time) and headed to Beirut. The "unusual" for RF shooter gear choice was prompted by the fact that I had to turn my work over every night - besides simply discovering the city I have joined a workshop run by Nikos Economopolous of Magnum.
I have had amazing adventures in that city. I was photographing 24/7 for 8 days, discovering during the day and analyzing the results at night. The city is full of photo opportunities. I'm not sure if I could last a week there (in it's current state) if I was there just for sightseeing, but for photography it was a treasure chest! 8 days was nowhere near enough. In that short time I've hung out in Hamra, Corniche, Armenian neighborhood, Palestinian refugee camps, attended Kurdish New Years celebration, etc, etc. I was just getting started, but I had to come back...
Still, those 8 days provided me with so many results. I'm just starting to wrap my head around all the different photos I took there. I consider myself perpetual armature, thus I could easily please myself :) In the coming weeks I'll have quite a task cut out selecting, editing and putting together final portfolio(s). Still, I'd like to share some initial results. Below are some of my photos selected by Nikos. I don't 100% agree with his selection, but I'm quite happy with them. In the coming weeks I'll expand on a couple of distinct themes.
The results below are all D700 and mostly Ai-S 1.4/35. They're unedited, so excuse the technical imperfections. In the coming weeks I'll post a few more as I go along. If you have any questions about the city I'll try to answer from my limited knowledge. Thanks for looking!




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Interesting shots. I look forward to more of them.

(I just scanned my father's shots from 1953. Beirut looked much more vibrant then. "Paris of the East" no more.)
 
bigeye - unfortunatelly you're right, it certainly doesn't look like "Paris of the Middle East" any more. I've seen old photos of the city and it looked glorious! Unfortunatelly oplanning and developing of the city (and it takes place everywhere as there's been distruction in most of it) makes it look to sterile for my taste.
 
Thanks everyone, appreciate all your comments.

Right now the hardest part is to detach myself from the photos and anylise them from "outsiders" perspective, not to select them based on my personal attachement or hidden stories behind them known only to me, but something that will speak to everyone. Having tons of material I'm thinking on splitting it into three parts: Beirut City, Children of Shatila (refugee camp) and Kurdish New Years.
Having Nikos around in the evenings going through my work was indeed very enlightening. Obviously he was a lot more critical of the work than I would be. he wasn't at all involved in the photographic process, but really opened my eyes to how to analyse photos. I've learned a lot. But most importantly I came back with even more passion for shooting than I've ever had before. That city was so inspiring! Hell, I even fell in love with DSLR :)
 
martin s said:
This is my favorite:
Click to expand...

yup, that one is brilliant with a lot of narrative. a lot of kids i meet throughout my travels in Africa and the Middle East look to soccer for enjoyment and a way out of sometimes impossible situations. it brings a lot of joy and hope to these kids and this photo has really portrayed all of this very, very well!
 
TWok - no conflict photography, simply, photography. I spent 8 days there, shooting during the day and at night Nikos (Economopoulus) would critique my work.
I'm increasingly interested in Middle East for photography and planned a trip there anyway. When I found out Nikos was running a workshop there I sent him my portfolio and was accepted to join. It was excellent 8 days. I'm not sure what exactly I learnt :) other than being increasingly self-critical and paying attention to the story in the photo rather than quality of the photo.
I'm still slowly going through all the photos I shot there. I'll post some more later, promise.
 
Excellent work. Most hobbyists never get that kind of a chance. If were to buy an SLR again it would definitely be the D700, a fast camera and probably one of the best low light shooters in its class.
 
Thanks guys! dropoff - D700 is indeed a fine camera. Although I like to shoot film, I must say this Nikon is a pleasure to use. Love the fact that I can easily use old MF lenses (which I do most of the time).

The show is not over :) Still a few hundred shots to go through and select.
 
After the first two images the work went to a new level, original and emotionally powerful, they held together and I like them.
 
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