HRAIR SARKISSAIN, ‘Background’

Written By SUERAYA SHAHEEN

BACKGROUND

HRAIR SARKISSIAN

Size: 21.5 x 27 cm

Pages: 130

Published by The Mosaic Rooms, 2015

Reflecting on the disappearing tradition of studio portraiture in the Middle East, this important publication features Hrair Sarkissian’s photographs of empty, staged studio backdrops across six Middle Eastern cities: Alexandria, Amman, Beirut, Byblos, Cairo and Istanbul. These backdrops, absent of their sitters, become symbols of lost traditions, cultural identity and time; eulogies to a certain period within a society and celebrations of portraiture as an art form, and of these spaces, which can no longer be found.

SUERAYA SHAHEEN
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HRAIR SARKISSAIN, ‘The Other Side of Silence’