Issue #2019.01.AP

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Arab Image Foundation: Half a million images that tell the Middle East's true tales

The National / Alasdair Soussi. Last year, Beirut’s Arab Image Foundation took receipt of a surprise package that was left on its doorstep. The delivery turned out to be a collection of classic photographs. “We didn’t even know who brought it,” says Marc Mouarkech, co-director of the AIF. Read more.

A photographic renaissance

Alserkal Avenue Folio / Rayya Badran. In the lead up to the launch of its new website and platforms, the AIF took a long and hard look within to question its archival and dissemination methods, and prompted what Mouarkech described as the AIF’s “repositioning of its archival practices”. The two co-directors set in motion a two-year digitisation plan before the release. Read more.

Photos revealing hidden histories of the Middle East

BBC Culture / India Stoughton. Many of the negatives and prints have sustained damage over the years. Rather than being restored or digitally manipulated, they are presented in their current condition and treated as historical artefacts. One stunning portrait of a ballet dancer, taken by Armenian-Egyptian photographer Armand (born in Turkey in 1901), is marred by white whorls like the mark of a thumbprint. Read more.

Arab photography archive releases 22,000 historic images online

The Art Newspaper / Tim Cornwell. The Arab Image Foundation, Beirut’s pioneering non-profit archive of Middle Eastern photography, has launched an online platform that makes 22,000 images from the collection accessible and searchable for the first time. The foundation’s building, which has been closed to the public since 2016, will also reopen this summer, a spokesman says. Read more.

Le patrimoine photographique régional à portée de clic

L'Orient le Jour / Gilles Khoury. À l’occasion de son 22e anniversaire, la Fondation arabe pour l’image vient de lancer sa plate-forme numérique* qui rassemble plus de 22 000 images d’archives accessibles au public. Read more.

A new mission for Arab Image Foundation

Artscoops / Miriam Dunn. These are exciting times for the Arab Image Foundation, with the non-profit organisation having just moved this week into a highly anticipated era of digitisation, launched via a new platform and supported by a revised mission that aims to make the photographic objects held there more accessible and interactive. Read more.

Reopening doors to an Arab archive

The Daily Star / Lisa Golden. Mark Mouarkech and head of collections Clémence Cottard Hachem have been at the helm of the foundation for over two years now. During that time, Mouarkech tells The Daily Star in advance of the launch, AIF has cemented an approach that treats its holdings albums, photographs and other items as three-dimensional objects, not simply pictures of something else. Read more. 

The Arab Image Foundation

The Arab British Centre. The Arab Image Foundation aims to track down, collect, preserve and study photographs from the Middle East, North Africa and the Arab diaspora.This year marks its 22nd anniversary, and to celebrate, they are launching a new online platform with 22000+ images accessible to the public for the first time. The platform is one of a kind as it provides a developed search engine, online residencies, and high level of interactivity with the photographs - all for free. Read more.

La Fondation Arabe pour l’image (FAI) lance sa nouvelle plateforme en ligne

Agenda Culturel / Lamia Darouni Sfeir. Aujourd’hui, et après deux ans de silence, la Fondation Arabe pour l’image va lancer en mai sa nouvelle plateforme en ligne, qui permettra au public d’avoir accès à ses collections et plus de 22.000 photos objets. Read more.