ISBN: 9789950313606

Hardback: 130 pages
Publisher: The Mosaic Rooms/A.M. Qattan Foundation
Language: English and Arabic
Product Dimensions: 21.5 x 27 x 1.8 cm

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.

The book was selected as part of Art Basel Crowdfunding Initiative which raised funds to make the publication possible.