Tsawwar… Samer Bou Saleh

“After 13 years, I found myself settling into my family home once again: brought back by the COVID-19 lockdowns, the economic crisis in Lebanon, and the loss of my full-time job. Reacquainting myself with this familiar space, I witnessed the scenes I grew up with through a renewed and heightened sense of appreciation. At the center of this reconnection was my mother’s relationship with food and her natural sense of presentation. She always made meals look effortless, despite the many hours of labor each might have taken. The light from our kitchen window provided the perfect setting throughout the day. What began as a spontaneous photo of fish in the sink, developed into an impulse to document these fleeting moments using all analog mediums at hand. Over time, I came to realize that the analog process itself and the ritual of shooting, developing, and printing echoed my mother’s own process in the kitchen – both slow, tactile, and rooted in care. Together, these gestures became a way of holding onto the present while preserving memory – each frame an attempt to capture the fragile and transient comforts of home.”

Tsawwar is an ongoing visual series in Daftar that explores the stories behind a photograph, taken in the region or by an Arab photographer, written in their own words. Samer Bou Saleh is a graphic designer and analog photographer whose practice is rooted in a deep appreciation for the printed image and the craft behind it. Explore his work on @samerbsaleh