What role do photographic archives play in the construction of alternate histories and the revival of historical discourses? How can these artefacts shed light on unheard stories and voices from the peripheries?
On 24 February 2022, we held a conversation with photographer, filmmaker, and editor-in-chief of Cold Cuts Mohamad Abdouni, exploring the documentation and archiving of trans* narratives and histories in Beirut. The conversation was moderated by AIF director Heba Hage-Felder.
We were also joined by Joy Stacey and Margot El Khoury. Stacey discussed the process of meeting with and interviewing the ten women featured in the journal, shedding light on the ethical parameters, methodological process, and subsequent framing of the women’s words within the book. El Khoury, community center manager at Helem, spoke about Helem’s role in the project, and its importance for the wider LGBTQIA+ movement in Lebanon.
Cold Cuts is a photo journal exploring queer culture in the South West Asian and North African region. The journal’s third edition, titled Treat Me Like Your Mother: Trans* Histories From Beirut’s Forgotten Past, comes out in March 2022, and celebrates the stories and lives of trans* women.
The journal brings together photographs of the trans* community in Beirut in the 1980s and the 1990s. These images are now in the custody of the Arab Image Foundation, in what is arguably the first such photographic archive of the queer community in the Arab region. But what is perhaps more important than the preservation of these photographic objects are the stories that need to be heard.
Mohamad Abdouni is an artist, photographer, filmmaker and curator based between Beirut and Istanbul. He is also the editor- in-chief and creative director of Cold Cuts magazine. His work has been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the Foam Gallery in Amsterdam, the Institute of Islamic Culture in Paris, Patel Brown in Toronto and in festivals around Europe such as IQMF, and the Leeds Queer Film Festival. He has worked with the likes of Vogue US, Vogue Italia, Burberry, Puma, Slate, Gucci, Fendi, Farfetch, King Kong, Dazed, Another, Nowness, Vice UK, and L’officiel. His personal projects tend to focus on the untold stories of Beirut, and uncovering the rich yet eradicated queer histories of the Arab-speaking region through several documentaries and photo stories that have been exhibited and published in festivals and publications from around the globe.
