Fouad Elkoury ( ar, فؤاد الخوري; born 1952) is a Lebanese photographer and filmmaker. He is known for his photographs of war in Lebanon.

Life and work

ElKoury was born in Paris, the son of Lebanese architect Pierre el-Khoury. He studied architecture in London before switching to photography. He began photographing daily life during the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...

. He documented the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and found himself on the ''Atlantis,'' the ship aboard of which

Yasser Arafat Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...

had been evacuated, producing an unexpected nautical photo essay. In 1989, ElKoury joined Rapho agency and spent one year in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

. In 1991, he was part of a collective photographic project in charge of capturing an ultimate image of

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

city center's ruins, with

Robert Frank Robert Frank (November 9, 1924 – September 9, 2019) was a Swiss photographer and documentary filmmaker, who became an American binational. His most notable work, the 1958 book titled ''The Americans'', earned Frank comparisons to a modern-da ...

Raymond Depardon Raymond Depardon (; born 6 July 1942) is a French photographer, photojournalist and documentary filmmaker. Early life Depardon was born in Villefranche-sur-Saône, France. Photographer Depardon is a mainly self-taught photographer, as he bega ...

René Burri René Burri (9 April 1933 – 20 October 2014) was a Swiss photographer. Burri was a member of Magnum Photos and photographed major political, historical and cultural events and key figures of the second half of the 20th century. He made portrai ...

Josef Koudelka Josef Koudelka (born 10 January 1938) is a Czech-French photographer. He is a member of Magnum Photos and has won awards such as the Prix Nadar (1978), a Grand Prix National de la Photographie (1989), a Grand Prix Henri Cartier-Bresson (1991), ...

and

Gabriele Basilico Gabriele Basilico (12 August 1944 – 13 February 2013) was an Italian photographer who defined himself as "a measurer of space". Born in Milan, Italy in 1944, he originally studied to become an architect before pursuing a career in photography. H ...

. ElKoury is one of the co-founders of the

Arab Image Foundation The Arab Image Foundation (french: Fondation arabe pour l'image; ar, المؤسسة العربية للصورة/ ALA-LC: ''al-Muʾassasah al-ʿArabiyyah lil-Ṣūrah'') is a non-profit organization established in Beirut in 1997. It aims to track ...

a non-profit organization whose mission is to collect, preserve and study photographs from the Middle East, North Africa and the

Arab diaspora Arab diaspora (also known as MENA diaspora, as a short version for the Middle East and North Africa diaspora) refers to descendants of the Arab people, Arab Emigration, emigrants who, voluntarily or as refugees, emigrated from their native lands ...

. In 2002, ElKoury was commissioned to produce a body of work to be exhibited at the

Maison européenne de la photographie The Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP; European house of photography), located in the historic heart of Paris, is a center for contemporary photographic art opened in February 1996. Location and activities The Hotel Henault de Cantobre, ...

as ''Sombres.'' He represented Lebanon in the 52nd

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

in 2007 with the series "On War and Love", 2006. In 2011, he exhibited ''Be…longing'' in a solo show at the

Beirut Art Center Beirut Art Center is a space for exhibiting contemporary art in Beirut, Lebanon History Beirut Art Center opened to public in January 2009. It is managed as a non-profit organization whose founders and executive board members were Sandra Daghe ...

. Elkoury participated in Roundtable: The 9th Gwangju Biennale, from September to November 2012 in Gwangju, Korea. In 2016, he exhibited the video installation ''Le plus beau jour he Greatest Day' at

Bildmuseet Bildmuseet ( en, Museum of Visual Arts) is a contemporary art museum in Umeå, northern Sweden. History The museum was founded in 1981 by Umeå University and it exhibits Swedish and international contemporary art, visual culture, design, and a ...

, Umeå University, Sweden, from June to September 2016.

Filmography

* ''Jours tranquiles en Palestine'' (1998) * ''The Wandering Myth'' (2001) * ''Lettres à Francine'' (2002) * ''Moving Out'' (2004) * ''Welcome to Beirut'' (2005)

Publications

* ''Beyrouth aller-retour'' (l’Etoile, 1984) * ''Palestine – L’envers du miroir'' (Hazan, 1996) * ''Liban Provisoire'' (Hazan, 1998) * ''Suite Egyptienne'' (

Actes Sud Actes Sud is a French publishing house based in Arles. It was founded in 1978 by author Hubert Nyssen. By 2013, the company, then headed by Nyssen's daughter, Françoise Nyssen, had an annual turnover of 60 million euros and 60 staff members. ...

, 1999) * ''Sombres'' (Marval, 2002) * ''La sagesse du photographe'' (l’œil neuf, 2004) * ''On war and love'' (Intervalles, 2007) * ''What happened to my dreams?'' (Espace Kettaneh-Kunigk 2010) * ''Be ... Longing'' (

Steidl Steidl is a German-language publisher, an international publisher of photobooks, and a printing company, based in Göttingen, Germany. It was started in 1968 by Gerhard Steidl and is still run by him. Overview The company was started by Gerha ...

, 2011) * ''Lettres à mon fils,'' with Lamia Ziadé (Actes Sud, 2016) * Passing Time, With

Gregory Buchakjian Gregory Buchakjian (born 1971, in Beirut, Lebanon) is a Lebanese photographer, filmmaker and art historian. He studied at the Paris-Sorbonne University. He is the director of the School of Visual Arts at Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts ALBA an ...

and Manal Khader (Kaph Books, Beirut, 2017)

Awards

* Prix Medicis Hors les murs (1989) *

World Press Photo World Press Photo Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Founded in 1955, the organization is known for holding an annual press photography contest. Since 2011, World Press Photo has organized a ...

, Honorable mention, General News stories (1995)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Elkoury, Fouad Lebanese photographers Lebanese filmmakers 1952 births Living people