Lebanon's brutal and bloody civil war lasted 15 years, took over 144,000 lives, wounded more than 184,000 and left 17,000 missing. For all the horror and bloodshed, a shroud of silence cloaks the events of the conflict. History schoolbooks stop at 1975. An official pardoning in 1991 means that all but a few crimes went unpunished, and save for the pockmarked walls of Lebanon's bullet-scarred...
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Lebanon's brutal and bloody civil war lasted 15 years, took over 144,000 lives, wounded more than 184,000 and left 17,000 missing. For all the horror and bloodshed, a shroud of silence cloaks the events of the conflict. History schoolbooks stop at 1975. An official pardoning in 1991 means that all but a few crimes went unpunished, and save for the pockmarked walls of Lebanon's bullet-scarred cities, there are no real memorials to the toll the war took on the Lebanese. For this project, I researched and revisited the precise locations where events transpired that acted as flashpoints for the civil war. The idea was to look for evidence - however faint - of the conflict and photograph the darkest memories of the civil war. Most surprising was just how present the conflict was; hidden behind walls and fences were wounds as fresh as they were even 34 years ago.

Some refer to the civil war as "the war of the others on our territory" - "harb al-akhareen". It's a revealing statement, blithely embracing the fallacy that Lebanese citizens would never have committed such atrocities against their own people. There are ghosts in these places, and ignoring them will not make them go away. This project is a glimpse into the past, offering a reminder of the urgent need for truth, reconciliation and remembrance.
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