Habib Saleh's 'Colored Air' Photography After Beirut Explosion

Lebanese photographer Habib Saleh, born in Joun, Mount Lebanon, created the photographic and poetic project 'Colored Air' following the Beirut port explosion on August 4, 2020, which destroyed his home and studio. The trauma shifted his approach from chasing images to receiving them, resulting in intimate, silent, and suspended photographs that capture the strangeness of everyday life and fragile beauty of details. Saleh, originally trained in cinema and fashion photography, now uses photography as a survival tool and a lens to observe the world amidst chaos. The project is not a linear narrative but an involuntary meditation, a gesture of resistance and presence. Saleh states, 'I am fascinated by life's ability to continue, even in total chaos.' 'Colored Air' is an homage to existence, to people who remain, places that change, and moments that pass—a silent declaration of love for life as bittersweet, still, yet alive.