Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, Latent Images, 1997-2006

Third part of the Wonder Beirut project
Photo installation
3 diasec (C–prints with facemounting ) each 47 x 58 cm

38 contact sheets (digital prints) each 30 x 40 cm

Latent Images is the last part of the Wonder Beirut project, based on the work of a fictive photographer, Abdallah Farah. The drawers represent part of the rolls of films shot but not developed yet. Since the war years, when he was often short of products, fixatives and most of all paper, Abdallah Farah stopped developing his films, being content with just taking pictures. The rolls piled up, he felt no need to reveal them. Nevertheless, he carefully documented each photograph he took as a written description in small notebooks. His pictures, therefore, give free rein to the viewer’s imagination. The rolls of latent film, displayed as contact sheets, constitute a personal diary and a photographic investigation into the history of contemporary Lebanon. The 38 rolls selected for the exhibition propose a possible narrative, relaying transformations in the city, the photographer’s personal and professional life, his lost love but also political and socio-economical changes during those years.