In images, in picturesTripoli, Homs, Palmyra… Mathieu Pernot followed in the footsteps of his grandfather, an amateur photographer who lived in Beirut and who traveled the region in the 1920s. His images tell of the life that continues in these areas devastated by conflict.
Mathieu Pernot’s adventure through the ruins of the Middle East began with an old family photo album. His grandfather, a teacher and amateur photographer living in Lebanon, had traveled the Mediterranean basin in the 1920s, visiting Tripoli, Homs, Palmyra. From his trip to the French and British protectorates, he had brought back some long-awaited images, gathered in a neat album: majestic ancient ruins, lively souks and chic lunches in a boater and white suit.
The countries visited, upset by decades of wars and disasters, no longer have much to do with this idealized picture of the Orient. Mathieu Pernot has decided to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, where countless contemporary rubble now adds to the ancient ruins.
“It was very naive of me to believe that I could go to these places and it was very complicated. »Mathieu Pernod
“I am not a war photographer nor a great traveler, acknowledges the photographer who received the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson prize for this project. It was very naive of me to believe that I could go to these places and it was very complicated, especially in Syria, where French access to the territories controlled by Bashar Al-Assad’s regime is almost impossible. »
Starting with Beirut in September 2019, he managed to find the family apartment there, which remained miraculously intact. But very quickly, his trip was placed under the sign of disaster: a few months later, on August 4, 2020, the building was seriously affected by the explosion of a stock of ammonium nitrate in the port.
The appalling destructions that greeted Mathieu Pernot in Lebanon heralded those he would encounter in Syria, a country ravaged by the relentless struggle of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime against the rebels, and in Iraq, a territory marked by the war against the organization Islamic State (IS).
The aesthetics of ruins
In his images, layers of ancient and recent history are juxtaposed and sometimes collide. The ancient ruins that his grandfather appreciated are sometimes preserved, as in the Greco-Roman city of Baalbek in Lebanon. Elsewhere, they have been reduced to piles of loose stones, such as in Palmyra, Syria, this extraordinary ancient city largely destroyed by IS between 2015 and 2017.
“I’m interested in being in between, between the din of war and reconstruction. »Mathieu Pernot
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