Man and Heritage in Lebanon by Bassam Lahoud

This exhibition shows the relation between the human being and its surroundings and heritage. It is a part of a whole exhibition of 220 pictures taken between 1961 and 2001 entitled INSTANT-ANNEES, and it is a sort of photographic autobiography.

These pictures show a large part of Lebanon, in all its cultural diversity.

The instant in photography stops the time and tells a story that would probably never happen again, and it is a power in itself to succeed to fix that moment.

A way of haunting images, and decisive moments.

This work is a promenade thru Lebanon and a contact with its inhabitants, who, for a moment of pose, became the main actors of this exhibition.

Craftsmen, workers, children and old ones, families, people of all classes and ages, were present at these photographic “rendez-vous”.

Posing in front of the camera, or taken suddenly, they were all “naturally natural”.

To conclude, the photographer who is always behind the camera, is, in fact, the only fixed element of his photos, since it is his LOOK that we are discovering.

The photo and the photographer unit in the eternity of the instant and become “one”.