LIFE

RAME LIFE 

PHOTO MARATHON EDITION 

2015 / BEIRUT NAPLES TUNIS

2015 

FRAME LIFE 

PHOTO MARATHON EDITION 

2015 / BEIRUT NAPLES TUNIS 

Editor-in-chief 

Ali Sayed-Ali 

Managing Editor 

Luca Paolo Cirillo 

Art Direction 

Typhanie Cochrane 

Graphic Designer 

Catello Ferrigno 

Project Manager 

Maroun Sfeir 

Financial Manager 

Farah Awada 

Editorial Advisor 

Spencer Osberg 

Contributors 

Mario Corbi 

Sarah Ben Hamadi 

Fiorella Spizzuoco 

Gianluca D’Ambrosio 

Published by 

FRAME 

www.frame.life 

Suggestions, comments 

and partnerships welcome 

info@frame.life 

Cover photo: Ieva Saudargaité, Doors, Beirut 

With the support of 

©All rights reserved. Copying for purposes other than personal 

reference use without express written permission from FRAME 

(association registration number 1248, Beirut, Lebanon) is prohibited. 


2

2015 

CONTENTS 

LETTER FROM 

THE EDITOR 

ONLINE VOTE 

WINNER 

FRONTIERS 

7 

25 

45 

JURY 

STATEMENT 

NAPLES: 

AN INTERVIEW 

WITH THE WINNER 

DIGITAL ERA 

11 

27 

63 

JURY AWARD 

WINNER BEIRUT: 

CHANTAL FAHMI 

OPEN ARCHIVES 

& DIGITAL 

GEOGRAPHIES 

INVISIBLE 

13 

31 

73 

JURY AWARD 

WINNER NAPLES: 

GIULIANA D’URZO 

TRANSCULTURAL 

MEDITERRANEAN 

HISTORY 

PHOTO MARATHON: 

PAST, PRESENT 

& FUTURE 

17 

37 

89 

JURY AWARD 

WINNER TUNIS: 

YOUNES BEN SLIMANE 

TUNIS: 

TESTIMONY FROM 

THE ORGANISER 

PARTICIPANTS 

LIST 

21 

43 

93 

Power 

Naples, Kr!X 

3 



4

PHOTO MARATHON 2015: BEIRUT, NAPLES, NAPOLI, TUNIS 

2015 

PARTICIPANT 

MOTIVATIONS 

PHOTO 

MARATHON 2015 

IN NUMBERS 

TO CONTRIBUTE TO 

EFFORTS TO DOCUMENT 

THEIR CITIES 

56% 

TO DISCOVER 

THEIR CITY THROUGH 

PHOTOGRAPHY 

TO BE INSPIRED 

42% 

TO TAKE PART IN 

A PHOTOGRAPHY 

COMPETITION 

48% 40% 

PHOTOGRAPHERS 

HARASSED FOR 

SECURITY REASONS 

BEIRUT NAPOLI TUNIS 


6 

23% 7% 73% 

12 

THEMES 

IN TRANSIT 

POWER 

THE FUTURE 

HOPE 

DOORS 

PUBLIC SPACE 

ARCHITECTURE 

FRONTIERS 

INVISIBLE 

DIGITAL ERA 

FAITH 

NOSTALGIA 

3 

CITIES 

1826 

170 

PARTICIPANTS 

SUBMITTED PHOTOS 

FAVORITE 

THEMES 

IN TRANSIT 

ARCHITECTURE 

NOSTALGIA 

66% 

CAPTURED PHOTOS 

IN AREAS THEY 

RARELY VISIT 

MOST DIFFICULT 

THEMES 

INVISIBLE 

FRONTIERS 

DIGITAL ERA 

84% 

DISCOVERED NEW 

INTERESTING THINGS 

ABOUT THEIR CITIES 

5 



6

We have art so that we shall not die of reality 

– Friedrich Nietzsche 

LETTER FROM 

THE EDITOR 

The self and the other. The user 

and the image. Beirut, Naples 

and Tunis are framing new 

geographies. Cross-roads of sounds. 

Enduring memory-fulcra. Busy lives 

in narrow alleys: strong tastes, loud 

colors, smelly traffic and mixed roots 

persist under the same boiling sun. The 

visceral intensity of emotions explodes 

within the constrictions of sky-high 

concrete towers. These are spaces where 

virtues and vices will always disrupt 

official patterns. 

In an increasingly globalised 

world where the Deleuzian horizon 

of “a thousand plateaus” has become 

reality, this edition of FRAME LIFE 

is exceptionally pertinent in how 

it explores the Mediterranean Sea 

beyond the confines of nation-states. 

Releasing the fruit of six months of 

curating the archive built during the 

2015 Photo Marathon, it is a special 

edition disclosing the achievements 

and potentialities of this initiative. 

In October 2015, 170 photographers 

in three cities on three different 

continents simultaneously took to 

the street and gathered 1826 images in 

12 hours, based on the same 12 themes. 

In a historical moment where a proliferation 

of borders spreads throughout 

the globe, and with the Mediterranean 

Sea becoming the most scenic hotspot 

of this phenomenon, the Photo Marathon 

2015 built a virtual room allowing 

people from Lebanon, Italy and Tunisia 

to overcome territorial boundaries, and 

create a bottom-up photo-archive to 

peer into the political, social and cultural 

imagery of these three countries. 

In each place we went through 

the themes of ‘Power’ and then moved to 

‘The Future’, we observed ‘Public Spaces’ 

and evaluated the ‘Digital Era’ in order 

to promote effervescing pictures of alternative 

frontiering. By listening to and 

interacting through aesthetic languages, 

we have actually tried to interfere in the 

very mechanism of difference-building 

and to shake the constantly ongoing 

ordering-othering processes that nowadays 

heavily affects the Mediterranean 

area. 

Thanks to the choices of our 

archivists, this issue of FRAME LIFE speaks 

to a polycentric, plural Mediterranean. 

Promoting a renewed maritime criticism, 

it ignores traditional cartography 

and loses itself in the vibes traversing 

the urban bodies of these three overlapping 

cities, trying to rearticulate fairer 

representations of each other. We want 

to impact the very process of identity 

production: our intent is to provoke, 

within existing rationalities, lines of 

flight that allow individuals to deconstruct 

their political, social and cultural 

constraints. 

The narrative is finally ours, of 

the cities and their inhabitants, of the sea 

and its communities. 

Luca P. Cirillo 

Doors 

Naples, Giorgio Cappiello 

7 

8

PHOTO MARATHON 2015: BEIRUT, NAPLES, TUNIS 

2015 

Public Space 

Naples, Antonio Riccio 

9 



10


2015 

JURY STATEMENT 

A roundtable meeting in December 2015 allowed for 

discussion and debate of each finalist, with winners 

determined by majority vote. 

GHADA WAKED 

Ghada Waked is a professor at the 

University of Balamand ALBA and 

Holy Spirit University of Kaslik. She 

is also President of Beirut’s Biennial 

for the Image and founder of Albedo 

Creative Platform. 

IAIN MICHAEL CHAMBERS 

Iain Michael Chambers is a 

professor of Cultural and Postcolonial 

Studies at the University 

of Naples “L’Orientale” where he 

is also Director of the Centre for 

Postcolonial and Gender Studies. 

He has lived in Naples since 1976, 

and has held visiting professorships 

at University of Oslo (1992) and at 

the University of California (1995 

and 2008). He is known for his 

interdisciplinary and intercultural 

work. Professor Chambers has 

written extensively on metropolitan 

and postcolonial cultures, and is 

presently engaged in re-thinking the 

conditions of a multiple modernity 

in the context of the Mediterranean. 

PATRICK BAZ 

Patrick Baz is French-Lebanese. He 

was 12 when the Lebanese Civil 

War war broke out in 1975. Living 

near the demarcation line separating 

the Beirut’s Christian and Muslim 

neighborhoods, Baz was motivated 

by what was going on around him 

to take up photography at an early 

age. Between 1980 and 1988, he 

worked as a freelance photojournalist. 

His photos have been published in 

major international magazines such 

as Paris Match, TIME, NewsWeek, 

Stern, Spiegel, l’Express and L’Espresso, 

among others. 

SOPHIA BARAKET 

Born in Tunisia, Sophia Baraket grew 

up in an image-oriented environment. 

In 2010, while in California, she took 

part in a project about the many 

‘dont’s’ in American society, returning 

just in time to start covering the 

Tunisian revolution. Baraket was the 

first Tunisian photographer to arrive 

at the border to document the exodus 

of refugees from Libya. 

FRAME’s Photo Marathon is a day 

of cultural and civic exchange 

through photography. This year, 

FRAME partnered with PaCTE Tunisien 

and L’Asilo in Naples to host the event. 

The result of this exchange was almost 

2000 photos submitted by 170 individuals 

on one day from three cities. We, 

the jury, had the task of parsing through 

this rich, multi-local collection. 

The unique structure and 

purpose of the Photo Marathon challenged 

us to balance the competitive 

spirit of judging with the community 

spirit of the photos’ production. Many 

lively conversations led to the selection 

of this year’s winners--one each from 

Beirut, Tunis, and Naples. 

In keeping with FRAME’s 

mission, we weighed the content and 

creativity of each set of photos before 

their technical merits. Consistency was 

important; a set with a few outstanding 

photos could not beat a set that demonstrated 

a steady eye and mood. 

The selection process began 

with each jury member producing 

a long list of candidates. We then 

responded to each other’s selections 

to shortlist 11 photographers. A 

roundtable meeting in early December 

allowed for discussion and debate of 

each finalist, with winners determined 

by majority vote. 

Chantale Fahmi is our Beirut 

winner. Chantale’s photos are sharp, 

clean, and place a critical eye on 

the themes. In “power”, a room full 

of mannequins stares blankly at us 

through a shop window. The mannequin 

at front and center seems to gaze 

directly into the camera, head centered 

atop a woman’s torso mismatched with 

a man’s hips and legs. 

Giuliana D’Urzo is our Naples 

winner. Her photos are stunningly 

atmospheric. While many photographers 

chose images of mobile phones 

and laptops for the theme “the future”, 

her choice has a distinctly Orwellian 

flavor, capturing two users of three 

rigidly aligned ticket booths in an 

otherwise empty plaza. 

From Tunis, we choose Younes 

Ben Slimane. His photos are strong 

in their focus on people interacting 

with the city in a variety of ways; they 

suggest stories. In “invisible”, a mickey 

mouse cartoon catches our eye from 

between two figures, one shadowy and 

one transparent. 

All of our winners shared the 

ability to surprise or move us with 

their interpretations of the 12 Photo 

Marathon themes. They went beyond 

the obvious or cliché. They were able 

to dive into the complex syntax of their 

specific cities, emerging with readings 

that demonstrate life in both the 

profound and the mundane. 

Philip Jones Griffiths Foundation 

Patrick Baz 

Ghada Waked 

Iain Chambers 

Sophia Baraket 

11 



12


BEIRUT 

Jury Award 

2015 

CHANTALE 

FAHMI 

Faith 

13 



14

BEIRUT JURY AWARD: CHANTAL FAHMI 

2015 

In Transit 

Architecture 

Power 

The Future 

15 



16

NAPOLI 

Jury Award 


2015 

GIULIANA 

D’URZO 

Public Space 

17 



18

NAPLES JURY AWARD: GIULIANA D’URZO 

2015 

In Transit 

Public Space 

Doors 

Invisible 

19 



20

TUNIS 

Jury Award 


2015 

YOUNES 

BEN SLIMANE 

Public Space 

21 



22

TUNIS JURY AWARD: YOUNES BEN SLIMANE 

2015 

Faith 

Architecture 

Power 

Frontiers 

23 



24

ONLINE 

VOTE 

Winner 

Khajag 

KIRAJIAN 

“The photo reflects the struggle and 

resistance of the nation, whether it 

belonged to a segment of a time that has 

elapsed, occurring, or yet to come. When 

I took the shot, the country was going 

through a political, humanitarian and 

waste management crisis. Everything 

was blurry and confusing; I couldn’t see 

a positive outlook. However, with a positive 

mindset and winds of change, the 

flag can always flutter again. The flag was 

fixed on a balcony in Karm Al-Zaitoun 

area of Ashrafieh, a neighborhood in the 

Lebanese capital Beirut. Photographed 

under the theme The Future.” 

25 FRAME LIFE FRAME LIFE 

26

PHOTOMARATHON 2015: BEIRUT, NAPLES, TUNIS 

2015 

NAPLES: AN INTERVIEW 

WITH THE WINNER 

by Gianluca D’Ambrosio 

The 2015 Photo Marathon in 

Naples drew a wide variety 

of participants. It engaged 84 

photographers in a collaborative documentary 

action and offered bridges of 

understanding that connected three 

cities on different Mediterranean 

shores – Beirut, Tunis and Naples. 

In Naples, Giuliana D’Urzo 

was selected as the winner of the 

competition. Her collection was defined 

as the most “suggestive” and “original” 

by the jury which, conforming to the 

core-idea of connecting the three realities, 

was composed of five judges from 

Lebanon, Italy and Tunisia. 

“The marathon was an 

incredible experience. I had never 

attended this kind of event before. 

What especially strikes me was its 

non-competitive aspect: just participating 

we won something” said D’Urzo 

in an interview. “Although winning the 

competition was something pleasant, 

I think the exchange nowadays I have 

with professional and amateur photographers 

living in other cities was the 

most important outcome I achieved 

through this project.” 

According to D’Urzo, by giving 

participants themes to photograph, 

the photo marathon helped renew the 

interest of photographers in their own 

city, adding that, “they let us consider 

the daily-life of the city in a different 

way”. 

Regarding the themes: “The 

hardest to depict for me was ‘power’” 

Hope 

The Future 

27 



28

NAPLES: AN INTERVIEW WITH THE WINNER 

-- said Giuliana. “I feel paradoxically 

that there is not an assumed power 

in Naples – it looks like an anarchic 

context. I can’t identify a unique power 

centre, there are several here. I could 

locate it in a student, or in a humble 

worker sustaining his family. Or maybe 

it is ourselves, but we are not aware of 

it.” 

Regardless, through this event 

many people reconsidered Naples and 

discovered Tunis and Beirut. It was an 

opportunity for participants not only to 

have fun, but to deepen their social and 

cultural understanding of the Mediterranean 

reality from its creative roots. In 

the end, D’Urzo expressed a desire to 

attend more events like the 2015 Photo 

Marathon and, sharing her enthusiasm, 

we are also looking forward to the 2016 

edition. 

"The exchange I have 

with photographers 

living in other cities was 

the most important 

outcome I achieved 

through this project" 

Frontiers 

The Philip Jones Griffiths Foundation is 

a charitable trust established in 2000 

The Philip by Jones the late Griffiths photojournalist Foundation Philip is a charitable Jones 

trust established Griffiths.The in 2000 objective by the of late the photojournalist 

Foundation 

Philip Jones is to Griffiths.The further the education objective of of the the public Foundation in 

is to further the the art education and science of the of photography public in the with art and 

science of a photography particular emphasis with a particular on helping emphasis and on 

helping and aiding aiding young young photojournalists. photojournalists. Katherine Katherine 

Holden and Holden Fanny and Ferrato, Fanny as Ferrato, trustees as of trustees the Foundation, 

were the members Foundation, of the were Jury members which chose of the the Jury award 

of 

winners for which the Beirut, chose Tunis, the award Napoli winners Photo Marathon for the 

Beirut, Tunis, Napoli Photo Marathon. 

www.philipjonesgriffiths.org 

29 FRAME LIFE FRAME LIFE 30


2015 

DE/CONSTRUCTING 

KNOWLEDGE: 

OPEN ARCHIVES & 

DIGITAL GEOGRAPHIES 

by Luca P. Cirillo 

& Mario Corbi 

The following article is part of ongoing research in the field of Postcolonial Studies. 

Our initial aim is to explore the potential of archives, investigating them as a process, 

and grounding our approach within different poststructural and postmodern discussions 

on power and knowledge. The second part addresses the possibility of archiving 

and, in doing so, of de/constructing knowledge in the digital era. It specifically 

explores cyberspace as an essential place that enables users to imagine new geographies 

and communities, fostering a renewed sense of belonging. Our work is inspired 

by the 2015 Photo Marathon, a motivating initiative which provides a wide-range of 

perceptions and visual data that gives substance to our analysis. 

Power 

Napoli, Antonio Riccio 

31 



32

DE/CONSTRUCTING KNOWLEDGE: OPEN ARCHIVES AND DIGITAL GEOGRAPHIES 

2015 

MEMORY 

& POWER 

Architecture, 

Beirut, Moe Dweik 

Architecture, 

Naples, Pasquale Marinelli 

Humankind has always had an 

impulsive need for collecting. 

Graffiti, papyrus, paintings, 

books, names, dates: the construction of 

archives -- that complex set of practices 

of accumulation, classification, conservation 

and exhibition of records -- can 

be considered an instinctual human 

activity. The selection of the knowledge 

worthy of preservation and its categorisation 

have been, throughout history, 

a fundamental tool of power. 

The root of the word archive is 

archè, its etymology meaning the origin 

of the power dominating the world. 

Paraphrasing the Italian philosopher 

Emanuele Severino, everything derives 

from and returns to the archive; it 

influences the present and shapes the 

future. 

Directly affecting individuals’ 

behaviour and imaginations, archives 

are essential to the production of 

power through knowledge. In choosing 

which data to include or exclude, 

every collection of records organises 

difference and, in a constantly ongoing 

process, institutionalises identities. 

The very structures that govern society 

including religions and nations, are 

made up of archives. 

It was in collecting and disclosing 

only a specifically-chosen knowledge 

that, for example, Europeans built 

what Edward Said called “Orientalism” 

-- the archive of difference in the Mediterranean 

space. It is a cognitive regime: 

a series of representations systematically 

gathered to influence the social acceptance 

of the otherwise unacceptable 

process that was colonialism. 

Promoting a bottom-up 

process of accumulation of records, we 

looked at the 2015 Photo Marathon 

as a disruptive way of archiving knowledge. 

The photo-archive constructed 

during this initiative represents an 

alternative narrative able to question 

the monolithic North/South division 

of the Mediterranean sea. The process 

of selection and classification of reality 

was compiled by each of the 170 participants, 

providing new possibilities for 

the audience to imagine different realities 

in the region through simultaneous 

documentary photography. 

Overcoming the current 

top-down narrative that divides our sea, 

we believe that this kind of collective 

and collaborative archiving-action can 

redraw identity and borders, subjectivities 

and alliances, ideologies and 

geographies. 

Open-archives and the 

on-going participation in their 

production and interpretation challenges 

rigid certainties and can lead to 

a rearticulation of beliefs. 

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DE/CONSTRUCTING KNOWLEDGE: OPEN ARCHIVES AND DIGITAL GEOGRAPHIES 

2015 

POLITICS 

& SPACE 

In October 2015, a community 

of 170 archivists from Beirut, Naples 

and Tunis simultaneously took to the 

streets to document their realities. 

Using the potential of cyberspace, the 

Photo Marathon project created an 

imagined virtual room suspended at 

the centre of the Mediterranean sea -- 

a new, un-hierarchised space enabling 

people to go beyond political maps and 

frame alternative narratives. 

Participants were stimulated 

to confront and exchange perspectives 

through photography; this group, 

across three continents, embodies a new 

form of citizenship and intercultural 

transnational community that, thanks 

to the digital space, operates outside 

of national or colonial frameworks. 

Producing a crowd-sourced digital 

archive, the same group will forge the 

a future community, one no longer 

trapped within a mainstream visual 

regime. 

Open-source museums, digital 

collaborative libraries, on-line participatory 

think-tanks: we believe these 

types of spaces allow people to deconstruct 

top-down narratives of power 

and to produce a different knowledge 

-- they engage their contributors with 

a new process of identification. 

Everyday more than 1.8 billion 

photos are uploaded on messenger and 

social media platforms. In 2013 alone, 

the amount of information gathered 

in digital space exceeded the total of 

all the data collected in the past. A 

deterritorialized, perpetual cyberspace 

nowadays seems to be the new essential 

place for politics to dwell in. 

This is why cross-border 

connections and bottom-up archived 

records are disruptive. Engaging 

diverse groups in identifying what is 

worth preserving in a common open 

space fosters alternative imaginations 

and creates room for challenging stereotypical 

cognitive regimes about ‘the 

other’. 

In Transit 

Beirut, Roland Alhaddad 

35 



36


TRANSCULTURAL 

MEDITERRANEAN 

HISTORY 

By Fiorella Spizzuoco 

2015 

The following article is an extract from a research-paper recently published 

by the Centre of Postcolonial and Gender Studies at the University of Napoli 

“L’Orientale”. The author, Fiorella Spizzuoco, develops her analysis in order to 

answer this question: How will multiculturalism survive around a postcolonial 

Mediterranean Sea? By digging into maritime maps and retracing the history of 

the Mediterranean as a medium and not a divide, the author attempts to find 

new escape routes from and overcome the representation of, the Mediterranean 

as an ever-increasing physical and cultural barrier. The 2015 edition of the Photo 

Marathon has been central to Fiorella’s work. She used the Beirut-Napoli-Tunis 

photo-archive to graphically illustrate her arguments. 

Public Space 

Beirut, Mona Ahmad 

37 



38 2

TRANSCULTURAL MEDITERRANEAN HISTORY 

2015 

Since ancient times, the Mediterranean 

basin has been a crucial 

meeting point of different people. 

Millenia of trade over the waves 

ensured prosperous economic, social 

and cultural development, and allowed 

for the birth of many florid and longlasting 

civilizations with a thriving 

literary and philosophical heritage. 

Different languages were 

spoken at the various ends of the trade 

routes and a clash of cultures often 

sparked troubles, but without question, 

the Mediterranean Sea was for 2,000 

years at the centre of the interests of 

three continents. By definition the 

medi terranean, it was a natural hub and 

melting-pot for distant societies. 

With the discovery of African 

routes and transatlantic paths, which 

opened up the New World, the Mediterranean 

reality drastically changed. 

Due to daily overseas conditions, what 

was considered the gate between North 

and South, between Europe, Asia and 

Africa, nowadays is a minefield for 

those attempting to cross it, and barrier 

to fortify for those who live in its 

Northern harbors. 

With receding contacts 

between its shores, political agendas 

have reduced the Mare Nostrum in 

Mare Mostrum, to a daily scenario of 

drowning migrants and wealthy seaside 

resorts — a lethally beautiful garden. 

The effort to unify worlds far away has 

be countered by wars and their consequences, 

which have made of our sea a 

deadly border, far away from the safe 

crossroads of languages, cultures and 

ideas we saw in the past. 

Given this framework, without 

any doubt, one powerful tool to con 

From Left, Doors: 

Tunis, Helmi Zouari 

Napoli, Roberto Preradov 

Beirut, Ramy Rahal 

trast the growth of hostile and hateful 

feelings is art, in all its forms. This 

thesis proposes that we listen to the 

aesthetic languages — music, painting, 

photography, writing — to build a 

renewed sense of unity and cooperation 

within the Mediterranean region, 

to overcome the boundaries of fear. 

Art connects minds and hearts: it can 

provide the foundational connections 

in the process of turning the sea back 

into the gateway it used to be. 

In my case, specifically, photography 

has been the device to do so. 

Thanks to an initiative organised by 

FRAME, a Lebanese NGO, in October 

2015 hundreds of passionate photographers 

from three Mediterranean 

cities — Napoli, Beirut and Tunis — 

gathered their efforts for a day to create 

a collective archive of perceptions and 

images. Different themes were set for 

this twelve-hour initiative called the 

Photo Marathon, and photographers 

had to show what they thought of 

Power, The Future, Hope and other 

themes, in a photo, without words but 

with colors and composition. I think 

the Photo Marathon of 2015 has 

shown some interesting and remarkable 

results, making possible visible 

connections between the involved 

realities, distant yet close, different but 

also familiar. The streets, the squares, 

39 



40

TRANSCULTURAL MEDITERRANEAN HISTORY 

2015 

"The Photo Marathon 

inspired a renewed 

interest of citizens in 

their own cities: they 

were enabled to look 

with different eyes" 

old and new buildings, the views, the 

smiles of Napoli, Beirut and Tunis all 

together. An enchanting yet tangible 

gallery that has been a true source of 

inspiration and ideas for my work. 

The photographers who 

took part in this initiative gave their 

personal touch to every shot, the touch 

of a native mixed with the excitement 

to find out something new about their 

own city. 

Being a student in Napoli, I had 

the advantage of deeply understanding 

the feelings behind every photo taken 

during the Photo Marathon in my city. 

The most beautiful part of my analysis 

came when browsing the Beirut and 

Tunis galleries and realizing similarities 

in the way photographers across 

the three cities meld the given themes 

with political, social and cultural issues. 

For example, looking at the 

powerful, poetic images from The 

Future, the closeup of a book in Napoli, 

in the hands of someone in a picture by 

Miriana De Marco, is not that different 

from the young girls sitting on steps, 

laughing and reading in the photo shot 

by Beya Ben Ammar in Tunis. Overall, 

I believe culture has been the hidden 

key to “unlock” this theme: the majority 

of the photos clearly relate to it. 

Last but not least, what I have 

noticed is another beautiful effect the 

Photo Marathon had on the relation 

between photographers and their own 

cities. Living in places like the chosen 

ones, cities full of history and traditions, 

implies never knowing them entirely. 

The Photo Marathon inspired 

a renewed interest of citizens in the 

place they inhabit: they were enabled 

to look around with different eyes, like 

amazed travelers willing to discover 

every little secret of the city, wondering 

at every hidden particular, looking 

in every corner and street to discover 

again a matchless Mediterranean 

composition, a unity in difference. 

Top right: The Future, 

Napoli, Miriana De Marco 

Bottom right: The Future, 

Tunis, Beya Ben Hammar 

41 FRAME LIFE 


42


2015 

TUNIS: 

TESTIMONY FROM 

THE ORGANISER 

Tunisia had undergone profound 

changes since the January 

2011 revolution that shook the 

country. Tunisians have reclaimed the 

streets and public spaces of Tunis. In 

this particular context, it seemed very 

important to me to organize the Photo 

Marathon in Tunis. Through 12 themes, 

we would engage citizens to document 

their city in this particular period of 

history. The different perspectives of 

each participant would give us a diverse 

reading of the city. 

More than a photo competition, 

the Photo Marathon has become 

an intercultural bridge. To organize 

the Photo Marathon simultaneously 

in three cities gave a very important 

regional dimension to the event. The 

images provide different readings 

of these three cities, and sometimes 

surprising viewpoints. With this Photo 

Marathon, the image has become 

not only a tool for analysis, but also 

communication between the shores of 

the Mediterranean. 

The Future 

Tunis, Chadha Ben Slimen 

Public Space 

Tunis, Yosri Lahouar 

43 



44


2015 

FRONTIERS 

Naples, 

Pierferdinando Di Nuzzo 

45 



46

PHOTO GALLERY: FRONTIERS 

2015 

Top left: Naples, Miriana De Marco 

Bottom left: Naples, Ludovica Formisano 

Right: Naples, Francesca Brancaccio 

47 



48


2015 

Beirut, 

Mohammed Allam 

Naples, 

Pasquale Marinelli 



50


2015 

Left: Tunis, Achraf Cheriki 

Top right: Naples, Paolo Silletti 

Bottom right: Naples, Giulia Paduano 

51 



52


2015 

Beirut, 

Ramy Rahal 

Beirut, 

Joanna Haddad 

Napoli, 

Carla Mellone 

53 



54


2015 

Tunis, 

Rekik Yosra 

55 



56


2015 

Beirut, 

Roland Alhaddad 

Tunis, 

Fairouz Feki 

57 



58


2015 

Top left: Tunis, Saber Agrebi 

Middle left: Beirut, Mahmoud Shehady 

Bottom left: Beirut, Raghad Shreet 

Right: Beirut, Alaa Ismail 

59 



60


2015 

Tunis, 

Amine Ghrabi 

61 



62


2015 

DIGITAL ERA 

Naples, 

Luca Carusone 

63 



64

PHOTO GALLERY: DIGITAL ERA 

2015 

Left: Napoli, Pierferdinando Di Nuzzo 

Top right: Beirut, Khajag Kirajian 

Bottom right: Tunis, Fassatoui Mohamed Akrem 

65 



66


2015 

Digital Era 

Beirut, Ali Hamouch 

67 



68


2015 

Beirut, 


Tunis, 

Bouali Hamideddine 

69 



70


2015 

Tunis, 

Zied Ben Chaabane 



72


2015 

INVISIBLE 

Beirut, 

Alaa Ismail 

73 



74

PHOTO GALLERY: INVISIBLE 

2015 

Top left: Napoli, Annalisa Bongiorno 

Middle left: Beirut, Moe Dweik 

Bottom left: Napoli, Giuseppe Maione 

Top Right: Tunis, Beya Ben Ammar 

Bottom Right: Napoli, Raimondo Fiorenza 



76


2015 

Top Left: Beirut, Omar Bazara 

Bottom Left: Beirut, Ali Hamouch 

Right: Napoli, Mauro Cangemi 



78


2015 

Left: Napoli, Simona Riccio 

Top right: Napoli, Daniele Perna 

Bottom right: Napoli, Alessandro Franchi 



80


2015 

Naples, 

Onorato Davide Falco 

ARCHITECTURE 

Beirut, 

Mohammad Bassyouni 

Tunis, 


81 



82


NOSTALGIA 

2015 

Napoli, 

Giuliana D’Urzo 

Tunisi, 

Badreddine Besbes 

Beirut, 


83 



84

PHOTO GALLERY: NOSTALGIA 

2015 

Naples, 

Fiorella Calamera 

Naples, 


85 



86


2015 

Tunis, 

Fairouz Feki 

IN TRANSIT 

Beirut, 

Khajag Kirajian 

Naples, 

Francesco Quartuccio 

87 



88

PHOTO MARATHON 2015: BEIRUT, NAPOLI, TUNIS 

2015 

PHOTO MARATHON: 

PAST 

PRESENT 

& FUTURE 

By Ali Sayed Ali 

Invisible 

Beirut, Khajag Kirajian 



90

PHOTO MARATHON: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE 

2015 

In 2013, FRAME was founded 

with the purpose of mobilizing 

communities to use photography 

to document the city of Beirut – a city 

where the pace of change is bewildering, 

where urban geography reflects 

political, social, and economic divisions, 

and where residents rarely have 

an opportunity to exercise control over 

how their neighborhoods are, or are 

not, developed. Since then, the FRAME 

platform has grown organically through 

collaborations and partnerships with 

community-based organizations, has 

been used to stage events in four countries, 

and currently features an archive 

of more than 5,000 images. 

Our philosophy is that in the 

age of social media, where 1.8 billion 

photos are uploaded and shared every 

day, we are all photographers. Through 

the frame.life platform, our aim and 

challenge is to direct the energy, gaze, 

and power of the collective eye to 

inform, document, and publish across 

cultures and borders. 

The first Beirut Photo Marathon 

was organized in 2013, in which 

almost 100 people spread out across 

the city for 12 hours; shooting images 

based around 12 different themes. After 

we collected the photos, we observed 

something very interesting; a series of 

patterns arise when large groups focus 

their lens on a single theme. To name 

a few, “Heritage” resulted in photos 

of dilapitated traditional architecture, 

“The Other” in pictures of foreign 

laborers, “Propaganda” in photos of 

news-stands. Since the photography 

was done simultaneously and without 

Power 

Napoli, Emiliano Esposito 

coordination, the collection also represents 

a moment in time and a dissection 

of the city by theme and neighborhood. 

We were encouraged by the fact that 

the majority of participants reported 

that they visited neighborhoods 

they rarely or never discovered. This 

crossing of invisible boundaries, along 

with the patterns in the collection, lead 

to the realization that we aren’t just 

documenting a place and time, but also 

documenting perceptions and encouraging 

a rediscovery of one’s urban 

environment. 

For the third Photo Marathon, 

and subject of this issue of FRAME 

LIFE, we teamed up with Asilo Cultural 

Power 

Beirut, Amahl Khouri 

Center in Naples and Le PaCTE Tunisien 

in Tunis to turn the initiative 

into a co-creation that crossed the 

Mediterranean sea and spanned three 

continents. 

Today, the FRAME platform 

is set to grow with the launch of our 

new website, which will allow anyone 

anywhere to create “photo actions” 

-- a model we have developed where 

groups of photographers are mobilized 

to document specific issues pertinent to 

their communities. 

Our next photo marathon, 

in partnership with community associations, 

will again stretch across the 

region, creating new virtual geographies 

of collaboration. By focusing the efforts 

and imaginations of people in up to 

seven cities crossing the Mediterranean 

frontier through one collective eye, we 

hope to trigger dialogue and to lay-bare 

the many similarities and differences 

which encircle our sea. 



92


2015 

Abdallah Fahme 

Achraf Cheriki 

Adnan Nassim 

Ahmed Oueslati 

Alaa Ismail 

Alain Mitri 

Albrecht Harder 

Alessandra Basile 

Alessandra Di Ronza 

Alessandro Franchi 

Ali Aldailami 

Ali Hamouch 

Amahl Khouri 

Amal Ben Othman 

Amine Baklouti 

Amine Ghrabi 

Ana Maria Stanciulescu 

Andrea Fiorentino 

Angelo Borrelli 

Anis Kalai Ezzar 

Anna Castellone 

Annalisa Bongiorno 

Annamaria Bianco 

Antonio Iuliano 

Antonio Riccio 

Antonios Chalfoun 

Araz Boutchakjian 

Augusto Scudieri 

Badreddine Besbes 

Bassim Bou Ghader 

Beji Okez Khaldoun 

Beya Ben Ammar 

Bilal Youssef 


Caline Renno 

Camilla Penna 

Camilla Rotunno 

Carla Mellone 

Carmen Yahchouchi 

Celine Vignaq 

Chadha Ben Slimen 

Chamoun Aho 

Chantale Fahmi 

Cristina Luongo 

Cynthia Dagher 

Cynthia Ghoussoub 

Daniela Del Mondo 

Daniele Perna 

Dany Awwad 

Diana Sarto 

Diego Albino Dentale 

Diletta Allegra Mazza 

Emiliano Esposito 

Fady Ghrawi 

Fairouz Fek 

Farah Alhattab 

Farid Farah 

Fassatoui Mohamed Akrem 

Fiorella Calamera 

Florian Castiglione 

Francesca Brancaccio 

Francesca Maselli 

Francesco Quartuccio 

Francescopaolo Lombardi 

Gianluca Cardinale 

Gigi Sorrentino 

Giorgio Cappiello 

Giovanna Delle Cave 

Giovanna Silvestri 

Giovanni Baldino 

Giovanni Tutini 

Giulia Paduano 

Giuliana D’Urzo 

Giuseppe Maione 

Giuseppe Nasti 

Helmi Zouari 

Housam Jackl 

Ieva Saudargait 

Jad Malaeb 

Joanna Haddad 

Kais Khanchouch 

Karim El Houssami 

Khajag Kirajian 

Kr!X 

Krikor Kajayan 

Lea Azar 

Leila Khemissi 

Leova Mir 

Lino Rusciano 

Luca Carusone 

Luca Freddo 

Luca Sessa 

Luder Artinian 

Ludovica Formisano 

Luigi Cigliano 

Mahmoud Merjan 

Mahmoud Shehady 

Malek Hebiri 

Manal Rahal 

Marcel Rached 

Marco Montefusco 

Maria Focareta 

Maria Salzano 

Maria Clara Andary 

Mariagiovanna Guillaro 

Mariangela Ranieri 

Mauro Cangemi 

Michele Del Vecchio 

Micheline Tohme 

Milad Lamaan 

Miriana De Maco 

Moe Dweik 

Mohamad Barakat 

Mohamad Kaaki 

Mohamed Ali Ben Ammar 

Mohammad Allam 

Mohammad Bassyouni 

Mona Ahmed 

Nadya Farah 

Nicoletta Panebianco 

Nihel Nejah 

Nour Bazzi 

Oliva Pietro 

Omar Bazara 

Onorato Davide Falco 

Pamela Aoun 

Pamela Tabobondung 

Paola Carone 

Paolo Silletti 

Pasquale Del Solio 

Pasquale Marinelli 

Patrick Mouzawak 

Patrik Abdel Sater 


Piero Bizzarro 

Pietro Scolorato 

Rabih Ibrahim 

Rachele Mercogliano 

Raghad Shreet 

Raimondo Fiorenza 

Ramona Marotta 

Ramy Rahal 

Razan Wehbi 

Rekik Yosra 

Rita Nasr 

Roberta Intatto 

Roberto Preradov 

Rodolf Bou Saleh 


Ruba Kallas 

Saber Agrebi 

Sandra Saad 

Sara Capriello 

Sara Karam 

Sara Pastore 

Simona Riccio 

Sofiene Ben Slimene 

Taleen Baydoun 

Viviana Nigro 

Wael Yammine 

Wael Zeddini 

Wassim Griman 

Wissam Al-Mokdad 

Yara Bsaibes 

Yosri Lahouar 

Younes Ben Slimane 

Zeinab Chour 

Zied Ben Chaabane 

Zitouni Ghassen 

PARTICIPANTS LIST 

93 



94


FALL 2016 

Hope 

Beirut, Antonios Chalfoun 

95 



96

2015 


97

2015 


©All rights reserved. 

98

LIFE

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