On War and Love (De la Guerre et de L’amour)
Fouad Elkoury
Paris, France: Editions Intervalles, 2007
Language: English/French
6.7 in (H) by 6.7 in (W)
86 pages
I joke with friends that for all my interest in Middle Eastern geopolitical affairs, I know next to nothing about Lebanon. Its contemporary history is highly complex, its internal politics charged and nuanced. Whatever I learn is consistently flipped on its head.
But what I do know are the following things: Paris is the Beirut of Europe, not the other way around; the Lebanese population has been disenfranchised for so long by both external and internal forces; and the Israeli military has historically been no match for the guerrilla warfare employed mainly out of southern Lebanon.
In this collection of photographs, Fouad Elkoury deviates from the expected geo- and sociopolitical angles and draws attention less to the depraved chaos and more to the sheer absurdity of war — and love.
Elkoury is a Lebanese architect (by education) and photographer (by practice) who gained international traction for his documentary work. Film camera in hand, he photographed everyday living in Beirut during and after Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in the early 1980s. Since then, he has traveled throughout the Middle East — including to Palestine, Egypt, and Jordan — documenting the environment, the people around him, and the mundane events that are easily overshadowed during great historical change.
On War and Love begins with a short and captionless introduction to a devastated but still beating Lebanon in 1982, shortly after Israel’s air, land, and naval assault.
The second section, only a few pages later, makes up the crux of this work. Set in July 2006 at the beginning of the Lebanon war between Israel and primarily Hezbollah forces, Elkoury begins by casually remarking on his luck once the airport is bombed, just one day before he was set to leave for an exhibition of his photographs from 1982, the ones from the first section of the book. This is a masterful way to close the circle and provide context for the preceding black and white landscapes of destruction.
The section then goes into a day-by-day accounting of his unfiltered thoughts and emotions. Lebanon is being bombed around him, but he is newly experiencing a breakup. He leaves Lebanon — without guilt, he says — and spends the rest of the war in Istanbul, trying to win back his partner and remotely taking in the suffering of his people.
A ceasefire is once again considered well into the war’s fourth week. A resolution is passed to end the fighting, but it takes effect only after the weekend. Elkoury’s partner, who has joined him in Istanbul, wonders about the people who die between the passing of the resolution and the day it takes effect. It’s totally arbitrary. A reflection of just how little those with power value life. War: calculated but ludicrous at the same time. This absurdity is nicely juxtaposed with Elkoury’s plus-or-minus breakup as the two lovers spend the duration of the war ignoring what feels like the inevitable.
Following the text are a series of artistic photographs. Some of the scenes are domestic: sun-kissed skin, scenes from outside of a fitting room, toy railroad tracks. Some others show the carnage of war, but with short passages written over the printed images.
I appreciated that Elkoury’s narration was kept separate and uninterrupted from the photographs. The body of photographs, on the other hand, seemed more conceptual, and I wish there was less emphasis on the text.
The third and final section of the book returns to Lebanon, now 2007, showing the aftermath of the war, but this time in color and with fewer human subjects.
Ratings:
Photography: 3.0/5
The photographs are exceptionally artistic. My personal preference is for unstaged, documentary-style photographs that are unmarked beyond appropriate color editing and cropping. Others readers may appreciate the creativity of the images more than I do.
Layout, text, and curation: 4.5/5
The book is nicely designed. I especially appreciate the subtle tie-in between the first two sections. I also appreciate that the main text is separate from the photography, allowing the viewer to experience each without interruption.
Messaging: 4.0/5
Elkoury’s lived experience parallels nicely with the absurdity of war. The more I sit with the book, the more I realize it is less about war and more about love — for a person, of a land, of life — that is maintained in spite of challenging circumstances.
Physical quality of the book: 4.0/5
The softcover is robust and the pages are thick. The book is bound securely. The printing quality can be better: the low DPI (dots per inch) takes away from the sharpness of the images.
Accessibility: 5.0/5
This is an exceptionally easy book for anyone familiar or even unfamiliar with the region to engage with. The storyline is easy to understand. And since love is universal and most people know how difficult it is to chase love, I believe Elkoury’s messaging is easy to relate to.
Overall experience: 4.1/5 (averaged score)
From a strictly photographic standpoint, On War and Love does not reflect Elkoury’s best work. The book shines for another reason: the way it highlights one photographer’s personal experience within and then away from but still intimately attached to war. It is nicely designed and well-built and would be a nice addition to most collections.