PLATFORM LAUNCH IN THE NEWS

PLATFORM LAUNCH IN THE NEWS

Media coverage for AIF online platform launch. Updated regularly with the latest features in French and English.

Click here for coverage in Arabic.

Photos revealing hidden histories of the Middle East

Funeral, Camille El-Kareh, 1920s, Lebanon. Mohsen Yammine collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation
Funeral, Camille El-Kareh, 1920s, Lebanon. Mohsen Yammine collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation

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

Selim Abu Izzedine’s Portrait of a woman on a horse (1900s, Egypt) has been digitally converted from a gelatin silver negative on glass Faysal Abu Izzeddin Collection; Courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation
Selim Abu Izzedine’s Portrait of a woman on a horse (1900s, Egypt) has been digitally converted from a gelatin silver negative on glass Faysal Abu Izzeddin Collection; Courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation

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

Portrait de rue, Mohammad Arabi, Tripoli, Liban, 1950-1960. Tirage gélatino-argentique. Collection FAI reproduite avec l’autorisation de la Fondation arabe pour l’image.
Portrait de rue, Mohammad Arabi, Tripoli, Liban, 1950-1960. Tirage gélatino-argentique. Collection FAI reproduite avec l’autorisation de la Fondation arabe pour l’image.

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

Al Manara road, Eugène Cottard, Beirut, Lebanon, 1914, Stereograph transparency. Eugène Cottard Collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation
Al Manara road, Eugène Cottard, Beirut, Lebanon, 1914, Stereograph transparency. Eugène Cottard Collection, courtesy of the 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

Portrait of a woman on a horse, Selim Abu Izzedine, Egypt, 1900s, digital conversion of a gelatin silver negative on glass. Faysal Abu Izzeddin Collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation.
Portrait of a woman on a horse, Selim Abu Izzedine, Egypt, 1900s, digital conversion of a gelatin silver negative on glass. Faysal Abu Izzeddin Collection, courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation.

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

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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

Autoportraits, Jad Mikhail, Ramallah, Palestine, 1944, Tirages gélatinoargentiques, montés sur carton. Collection Jad Mikhail, reproduit avec l'autorisation de la Fondation Arabe pour l'Image.
Autoportraits, Jad Mikhail, Ramallah, Palestine, 1944, Tirages gélatinoargentiques, montés sur carton. Collection Jad Mikhail, reproduit avec l'autorisation de la Fondation Arabe pour l'Image.

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. 

About Arab Image Foundation

The Arab Image Foundation is an independent association forging new pathways for photography and image practices. Uniquely positioned at the intersection of artistic creation, research, and archiving, we explore, question and confront the complex social and political realities of our times.

Our collection of over 500,000 photographic objects and documents from and related to the Middle East, North Africa and the Arab diaspora has been gradually assembled over the last 20 years by artists and researchers and through donations. With a critical and innovative approach, we collect, rethink, preserve, activate and understand these photographs through their multiple strata, and enrich the collection in the process.


Arab Image Foundation
Zoghbi Building, 4th Floor, 337 Gouraud Street, Gemmayzeh, Beirut, Lebanon