Anwar Azzi’s pictures are both gritty and beautiful at once. Playing with light, texture and reflection, his images reflect a stark urbanity without losing the magic an image must possess in order to steal one’s gaze. We chat to the photographer – who spends his time between Beirut and Paris – and find out the person he’d most like to photograph is his father.
I knew I was a photographer when… I realised I had no pictures of myself growing up. I knew someone must have been snapping shots somewhere! I then became the kid with the camera. Photography as an artistic outlet came naturally with the urge to express myself.
My first camera… was a manual Canon AV-1, which I still use sometimes. It came out in 1979; the same year I did!
Art is… something I can almost grasp, but I’m too lost for words to tell you exactly how I feel about it. I read a definition I found quite amusing. It said “art happens to spectators who don’t really want to understand what they see, but rather feel what’s beyond their understanding.”
I am inspired by… sound and music.
My work is… to be continued.
My favourite light to photograph in is… dim, indirect and mostly natural light. Beauty is more discernable in grim, dark spaces.
My favourite space is… between the lines; what moves and happens off camera.
If I could photograph anyone I would… have liked to photograph my dad. He was a prominent political and military figure in pre-war Lebanon before sadly being struck by a long illness. Stories and photographs from that era made me realise what a passionately resilient and strong figure he was. Aside from that, my love for music would probably drive me towards doing portraits of contemporary musicians and performers, starting with Thom Yorke!
If I could travel anywhere I would… see the world.
My dream is… somewhere over the rainbow.
My most recent exhibition… is Clouded Mirror Opus I at the Gallery S Bensimon in the Marais Art district in Paris which runs until the end of August. The Clouded Mirror trilogy is an expressionist work of art in the symbolical, surrealist and abstract sense and is composed of progressive ego-narrative, self-reflection, realisation and enlightenment. Apart from my personal works that are continuously under development, such as the Clouded Mirror Trilogy and the Trans-Cycles, I’m building up some photographic documentaries for the Middle East and a very exciting global interactive photography project called Seconds After, which I can’t reveal just yet.
