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Akram Zaatari's 'Three snapshots and a long exposure' at Sfeir-Semler Gallery

exhibition · 2026-04-22

The Sfeir-Semler Gallery in Beirut has opened its newly expanded ground floor with a solo exhibition by Akram Zaatari titled 'Three snapshots and a long exposure.' This exhibition explores the malleability of photography in the digital age, addressing themes such as migration, withdrawal, contamination, and recreation. On the first floor, a series of works reflects on the iconography of post-civil-war Beirut, showcasing images Zaatari captured in the mid-1990s for a book by Robert Saliba, which remained unused until now, twenty-five years later. The landscapes illustrate gentrification along the former green line (1975–1990). Additional pieces include 'The Fold' (2018), 'The Tabnit Monolith' (2022), 'An Extraordinary Event' (2018), and 'Footnotes to Hashem el Madani’s Studio Practices' (2018).

Key facts

  • Sfeir-Semler Gallery inaugurates expanded ground floor space in Beirut.
  • Solo exhibition by Akram Zaatari titled 'Three snapshots and a long exposure'.
  • Show explores plasticity of photography in digital era.
  • Eponymous series focuses on post-civil-war Beirut iconography.
  • Zaatari documented Beirut's first belt in mid-1990s for Robert Saliba's book project.
  • Images taken with 4×5" view camera, unused for 25 years.
  • Landscapes capture speculation, gentrification, urban transformation along green line (1975–1990).
  • 'The Fold' (2018) interprets Arab Image Foundation photographs, including a nude transparency attributed to Kamal Haddad, turned into marble bas-relief.
  • Transparencies attributed to Dr. Farid Haddad from 1920s–1930s.
  • 'The Tabnit Monolith' (2022) replica of Phoenician king's tomb boulder destroyed in 1887.
  • Excavation led by Osman Hamdi Bey in Sidon's Necropolis.
  • Also on view: 'An Extraordinary Event' (2018) and 'Footnotes to Hashem el Madani’s Studio Practices' (2018).

Entities

Artists

  • Akram Zaatari
  • Kamal Haddad
  • Farid Haddad
  • Hashem el Madani
  • Osman Hamdi Bey
  • Robert Saliba

Institutions

  • Sfeir-Semler Gallery
  • American University of Beirut
  • Arab Image Foundation

Locations

  • Beirut
  • Lebanon
  • Hamburg
  • Germany
  • Saida
  • Sidon's Necropolis

Sources