Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Serge Najjar Captures Urban Geometry in his Photos of Lebanese Cities

Lebanese photographer Serge Najjar notices geometric patterns in his day-to-day surroundings. Based in Beirut, his photographs capture instances of minimalist architecture with an emphasis on symmetry and repetition. But despite its focus on clean designs, his work includes evidence of human inhabitants in these austere edifices. With people peaking out of their doors and windows, the buildings come alive. The people in his work add individuality and quirkiness to his otherwise highly stylized presentation of Beirut, where cultural context is stripped away to highlight the city's modern, architectural elements.

Lebanese photographer Serge Najjar notices geometric patterns in his day-to-day surroundings. Based in Beirut, his photographs capture instances of minimalist architecture with an emphasis on symmetry and repetition. But despite its focus on clean designs, his work includes evidence of human inhabitants in these austere edifices. With people peaking out of their doors and windows, the buildings come alive. The people in his work add individuality and quirkiness to his otherwise highly stylized presentation of Beirut, where cultural context is stripped away to highlight the city’s modern, architectural elements.

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
Going through Randy Hage’s “New York Storefronts” series of photographs had me admiring them as photographs for all the reasons you admire a great photograph; color, composition, a story... until I read the captions: "1/12th scale sculpture of a bodega in Brooklyn..." These storefront miniatures could be thought of as time capsules of a potentially endangered species, capturing the delicate beauty of aging architecture. Hage has been creating sets, models, and props for the TV/Film and small scale hobby industries for over 25 years and has an upcoming solo show at Flower Pepper gallery October 10th, 2015.
Even if the final representation of Georges Rousse’s work is a single-perspective photograph, the French artist is a man of several disciplines. He also considers himself a sculptor, painter, and architect, having transformed nondescript, soon-to-be-demolished spaces into transcendental pieces for decades. A Starbucks at The Cosmopolitan hotel in Las Vegas doesn’t share the same fate as those abandoned buildings, yet even in this bustling hub, Rousse creates a singular moment viewable in just one spot.
Kat Toronto, a.k.a. Miss Meatface, shows her stirring blend of performance art, photography, ceramics, zines, and more in a new exhibition at The Untitled Space in New York. The multidisciplinary artist, who was featured in Hi-Fructose Vol. 47, is offering work that the gallery says spans several years. The gallery says her works “explore cultural ideals of feminine beauty and the objectification of women in a feminist society by toying with the push and pull of dominance and submission, as well as the acts of revealing and concealing.” Her exhibitions runs through July 13.
As a kid, dropping your ice cream on the sidewalk was a moment of bitter disappointment. Michael Massaia makes us remember this childlike feeling of sadness with his photographs of melted ice cream — a feeling that you know is petty yet still breaks your heart. The artist simply places popsicles on black plexiglass and watches them melt over time. The original shape of a Spiderman or Spongebob pop turns into a swirling, oil slick-like pattern of pastel colors. The melted sweets evoke a nostalgic longing for carefree summers on the playground. Ice cream pops, something we hadn't previously given much thought to, turn out to be a pretty powerful sensory symbol.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List