Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Life in Lebanon

I hope the photos in this post give a sense of life in Lebanon beyond the cloak of fear and instability many western media outlets use to depict the small Mediterranean country.

Lebanon is a land of harmonized oppositions (or opposing harmonies) - mountain faces towering over the sea, churches and mosques across the street from one another, a one-legged man on the street offering you coffee.  It is a difficult life riddled with neglect and steeped in family values - these photos show Lebanon suspended from its political context (it tries, at least), focusing on its natural beauty, and the way people fit themselves into that beauty.  


The ruins of Anjar village.  
Farayah - This is where we go to ski.

Beirut at sunset from my uncle's apartment.  A mesmerizing sun humming "good night" to the people.  

What used to be the Nahr River.  Countless bullets and rockets were exchanged across this waterway during the civil war that lasted from 1975-1990.  

The rocks of Rowche refusing to sink quietly into the sea.

Memories of a violent past.  

My grandmother's balcony at dawn.  Do you see that big green hill in the middle of everything?  That's a big pile of trash.  Sometimes you can smell it when the wind blows.  


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