Nadim Asfar

Nadim Asfar

Baalbek, Day Into Night, 1996

"I was a 20-year-old photography student when I first visited the Baalbek archaeological site in ’96. I wandered it, searching for an angle I hadn’t yet seen—something absent from the history books and postcards. The site was so iconic that I thought every picture had already been taken; they already existed.
I experimented with the temples and columns, trying to disrupt the site’s iconic character. I remember feeling an incredible sense of freedom. Using a red filter, typically reserved for black-and-white photography, I created a series, playing with framing and rendering of colours as if I were in a studio or theatre. There was magic in transforming day into night and in breaking away from conventional images of the site.
In contrast to the lightness and joy I felt then, today, I witness with deep anguish the transformation of this extraordinary site into a theatre of darkness and war. I think of the citizens whose simple moments and individual experiences are violated by war, damage, and intrusion."