A crossroads of civilizations, Syria has experienced painful and tragic events in recent years. Palmyra, heritage of our common past, between East and West, is its martyred symbol. This unique report is a tribute to the beauty of this country and to the men who built, loved and protected it.
Invited in 2002 to the Aleppo photography festival, Michel Eisenlohr decided to take the road from Marseille. Like the writers who made their “journey to the Orient” in the 19th century, he apprehends this territory by road, over the miles. As a travel diary, a film camera and the bias of black and white.
In the middle of the desert, Palmyra is an essential stopover. The grandeur and poetry of the ruins overwhelm the photographer. The light leaves its mark on it, chiselling the volume of the columns, cutting out the relief of the cornices. We believe the city abandoned to the wind; it turns out to be inhabited by the shepherds who rest their flock in the shade of its walls, by the children who find there a huge playground.
In Aleppo and Damascus, Michel Eisenlohr's gaze is caught by the bubbling life of the stalls, the floating fabrics, by the dark and cobbled alleys, by this art of living which brings together the different communities in sharing and respect. The colonnades of the Roman city respond to the arcades of the mosque, to the ancient tracery, the geometric patterns of Islamic art.
Dialogue of forms and societies. Such is the Syria that the photographer discovers, sublime, generous, sometimes secret. A land of heritage living in the present.
Michel Eisenlohr
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