Rhea Karam (Lebanon/USA):

Breathing Walls

“By definition, walls are barriers. They can also act as windows to the conflicts engulfing their surroundings. They are storytellers – absorbing and reflecting their surroundings – and becoming silent witnesses to our lives and battles. As a photographer I felt the necessity to document the ephemeral testimonies of life as a record of an important period in Lebanon’s modern history. My hope is that these images evoke emotions in my viewers, and speak to them about the importance of observing their surroundings with a critical eye. In Lebanon, to find beauty in a cracked wall is to understand history; to see beauty in a graffiti wall is to understand the power of self-expression; and to see beauty in a wall that tells a tale is to understand the power of the brushstroke. I hope this series of images will one day stand as an archive illuminating a story of progress.”

Lebanon-born Rhea Karam is a freelance photographer based in New York. She shoots still life and interiors on commission, while her solo practice questions social behaviour through the documentation of domestic and urban landscapes. She attended the International Centre of Photography in 2007, where she received a director’s scholarship and her work has been included in several juried group exhibitions across the United States, Europe and the Middle East. In 2011 she attended the Review Santa Fe and held her first solo exhibition at the Third Line Gallery in Dubai.

Images © Rhea Karam.