All That Remains

18 October 2017

An ongoing project that combines my interest in Classics and photography, All That Remains involves photographing classical archaeological sites and their environs throughout my homeland of Lebanon, a small gesture towards preserving the images of a heritage that faces a real risk of total obliteration. My goal is to expand this project to document similar sites throughout the Middle East, and represents my commitment to drawing attention to the suppressed status of the region in scholarly (and indeed popular) formulations of the classical tradition. Here are material remains that evidence the importance and integrity of the Levant to the classical world, and these serve as a challenge to the narrative, recently resurrected, of a clash of civilizations and of cultural divide between ‘East’ and West’. My images thus point instead to continuities that emphasize Lebanon’s place – and, indeed the place of the Middle East – as a partner in, rather than as an antagonistic foil to, Classical (and, by extension, European) culture.