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Beirut
by Night
A Century of Nightlife
Photography
Middle East Journal of Culture and
Communication, Volume 8, Issue
2-3, pages 256 – 281
Publication Year : 2015
DOI: 10.1163/18739865-00802006
ISSN: 1873-9857
E-ISSN: 1873-9865
Volume 8, Special Issue: Local
Histories of Photography in the
Middle East, 2015.
Edited by Lucie Ryzova
Published by Koninklijke Brill,
Leiden, NV
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article PDF
Article page
on BRILL Online
Volume 8,
Special Issue: Local
Histories of Photography
in the Middle East page
and summary on BRILL
Online |
Abstract
Over the past century,
Beirut has acquired a
reputation as the
nightlife destination of
choice in the region.
Photography was and
remains a privileged
witness of the proverbial
‘Beirut nights’. In this
essay I trace the history
of the genre of nightlife
photography in Beirut over
the past century, from the
grand ball era of the
Mandate period to informal
underground nightlife
during the civil war and
its aftermath; to the rise
of the nightlife
image-making industry in
the 1990s and 2000s. I pay
particular attention to
the ways in which
technological developments
interplayed with
historical and social
contingencies in
Lebanon—such as the
Lebanese civil war and the
disintegration of barriers
between private and public
spheres in the age of
social media. Recast as
art, digital nightlife
photography is responsible
for the erosion of
‘vulgarity’ as a social
category under the twin
pressures of neoliberalism
and technological
development; it also plays
a major role in the
contemporary branding of
Beirut on a global scale.
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related
projects
Nighthawks
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related
articles and papers
Marie Bonte and Zara
Fournier, "Prison
et boîte de nuit. Le
Liban post-conflit à
travers ses
lieux-fantômes /
Prisons and
nightclubs:
post-conflict Lebanon
through ghost places", Geographie
et Cultures,
106/Geographie des
fantomes, 2018, p.
75-93.
https://doi.org/10.4000/gc.7341
Natalie Shooter, "Ihsan
Al-Mounzer: The
godfather of belly
dance disco", Al
Jazeera, 23 November
2020
Jordi
Nofre, "Because
the Night Belongs
to Us", Émulations
n° 33: La nuit
urbaine: Un
espace-temps
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