Beirut photo festival offers analogue experience in digital age
The Beirut Image Festival, in its first year, is providing a forum for young photographers raised on the digital imagery of social media to get a taste of the art of photography by exhibiting their works in venues alongside veteran photographers.
“Everyone has a phone. Everyone sees hundreds of images a day,” Ibrahim Dirani, project manager of the Beirut Image Festival (BIF), told Al-Monitor. “We have integrated this culture, but we don't link it to an image that we stand in front of and really look at.”
BIF, which runs Sept. 5 through Oct. 5 in different locations in Lebanon, seeks to link the art of photography with the culture of the everyday posting of digital imagery online by exhibiting works by established artists and photojournalists alongside those of emerging photographers. The juried show features 600 photos from 122 photographers displayed in more than a dozen venues around the country.
