Elise Khoury

Beirut Layers is a project that I decided to start as soon as I returned from Spain (end of 2019), after 4 years of absence. These years away from my native country have allowed me to perceive differently and more subtly all the beautiful things and details that I had never paid attention to before. My choice to capture only the Stone (without people) in this series of photos, highlights the traces of war, time and men that have made these places historical witnesses and memories of continuous destruction.

This project aimed to highlight the consequences of the civil war, the impact of the pandemic (covid-19) on the city, and finally to be the unmistakable witness of the effects of the massive explosion of August 4, 2020 that destroyed a large part of Beirut. Thousands of people were left homeless, thousands suffered physically and emotionally and hundreds died... As an architect, I felt the need to do something to help, so I started working as a volunteer with the NGO "Offre Joie" in the renovation of an old heritage house in Karantina (one of the most affected residential areas in Lebanon).

I am now trying to capture the beauty, the pain, the love, the massive impact of the explosion, the sadness and the joy of my city over time. Despite the destruction, I am conveying my personal emotions through photographs while imagining the reconstruction of Beirut for the future.