In Beirut, solar panels and water tanks tell a story of decline Favorite 

Dia Mrad’s people-free photographs capture the resourcefulness of the Beirut population

How do you photograph a crisis that is engulfing every section of society? That was the question facing Dia Mrad when he returned to Lebanon in 2019, having spent two years in Europe following his master’s degree in architecture at The Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, Jounieh. Back in Beirut, he shared the anxieties and mounting anger of his fellow citizens. The 17 October Revolution had led to prime minister Saad Hariri’s resignation, with widespread protests against sectarian rule, corruption, and a lack of basic services continuing into 2020. Then the Covid-19 pandemic and an explosion at the city’s port in August 2020, in which ignited ammonium nitrate killed over 200 people, further exacerbated the economic turmoil. GDP per capita dropped 36.5 per cent between 2019 and 2021, and the country faces ongoing triple-digit inflation – a figure that reached 268.8 per cent in April 2023.

Throughout his studies, Mrad had used photography to “contextualise architectural design”, accumulating an archive to inform his research into the links between European and Lebanese building styles. Surrounded by infrastructural and social breakdown, he shifted focus towards “the physical transformations and indications of the economic crisis” for his ongoing project, Utilities. It is an “archive for the future”, he says, a study for a suffering nation.