Against Photography’ exhibit on Arab Image Foundation history

CAIRO – 18 September 2017: Akram Zaatari's “Against Photography: An Annotated History of the Arab Image Foundation” exhibit, currently running from April 7 until September 25, 2017, is more than just an archive of photos; it’s a sentimental trip back in time.

The exhibit, located in the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), or the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, trawls through the archives of Lebanon’s Arab Image Foundation, which was established in Beirut in 1997 by Zaatari and other photographers in order to preserve photographs from Lebanon and throughout the Middle East, North Africa and beyond.

Zaatari’s exhibit goes through his contributions across the 20-year long history of the AIF, yet it serves more than to just archive his work. It’s an examination of what photography means to us, the power an old image can hold, and the effects that the passage of time can have on a photograph. Going deeper, Zaatari also explores photography’s relationship to the Arab world, as both an engine of history and its recorder, a celebration of what it means to be Arab.

The exhibition comes with a catalogue that features an essay by Mark Westmoreland about Zaatari’s body of work and new works.