In the Studio with Anthony Saroufim

Much of Anthony Saroufim’s photographs center on one basic premise: Brutalist architecture, wherever he can find it. Massive concrete blocks, towers, apartment complexes, churches, theaters – his work is a raw depiction of buildings characterized by plainness and functionalism in different forms of white and grey, occasionally a welcoming pink or blue. Buildings that, despite their history and grandeur, are often ignored, disregarded or eventually torn down. “I’ve always liked the buildings that are considered concrete where the structure is apparent and it’s true to what it is really, it doesn’t need additional decoration or ornaments,” Saroufim says.

The Paris-based artist has always been passionate about both architecture and photography, having done them separately until his diploma project at the Ecole Speciale d’Architecture (ESA), “where I found a way to merge them in a proper way,” he says.

In fact, Saroufim’s diploma project was entirely devoted to the Egg, or the Dome, a large, oval Downtown Beirut building known for being the first cinema in Lebanon, now decrepit and abandoned, save for the occasional exhibition or event. He’s also a huge fan of the Interdesign building in Hamra built by Khalil Khoury, and the Rachid Karami International Fair in Tripoli built by famed Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. Saroufim even exhibited his photographs of the fair at an exhibition hosted by the Brazilian Embassy in Lebanon. “Every time I go back to Lebanon I go back [to the International Fair] and take more pictures because it’s in a state where the decay is so strong, and no one is taking care of it, and it might fall down one day. So I want to capture it every time at every step in case it falls down,” he says.

He’d only lived in Beirut post-Civil War, so he’d seen the reconstruction of Lebanon but not its destruction. Photography became to him a physical reconstruction of the city. He studied at the Lebanese American University before moving to Paris and has since then been working at architecture agencies while also working as a photographer. Photographing Brutalism is where he really found his niche.

He also does not use digital cameras, instead opting for a Canon AE-1 and experimenting with different types of film like the Cinestill 800T, Kodak ColorPlus and expired film. “I really think that it’s more interesting to work in film than in digital photography because first of all, you don’t need to post-edit the picture, it’s really raw and there are natural colors that are closer to your eye,” he says. “Especially that in architecture photography nowadays, all the digital photography is so perfectly aligned, so high resolution, that in the end it looks more like a rendered image that’s out of a computer than a photograph taken by a human. So the closer to what humans see, the better it is for me, and I think I can accomplish this better with film photography.”

But it’s not easy work. It can be quite difficult to gain access to certain buildings like the Egg, as it’s entirely fenced off. To photograph the infamous Holiday Inn in Downtown Beirut, which is surrounded by soldiers and is sealed off completely, he had to do it from a friend’s apartment which, to his luck, faces the abandoned hotel.

“THE CLOSER TO WHAT HUMANS SEE, THE BETTER IT IS FOR ME, AND I THINK I CAN ACCOMPLISH THIS BETTER WITH FILM PHOTOGRAPHY”

And while Saroufim’s passion lies in photographing concrete structures, another project of his takes on an entirely different subject: Beirut nightlife. Titled Les Indisciplinés, it was born out of a desire to shoot something a little less serious and more freeing, and so, armed with a disposable camera, Saroufim began taking photographs of his friends at clubs and house parties whenever he was on holiday in Beirut. The French word indiscipliné means the unmanageable, the disobedient, a quality he aims to depict in his photographs, which are shot entirely in black and white. Extremely intimate, veritably wild but with surprisingly comfortable subjects, they offer “a closer and more personal look at the hidden side of our nightlife.”

His friends trust him, Saroufim says, so they directly pose or immediately say yes to a picture, which is most of the time a completely effortless task. And while his Brutalist photography may take a bit more focus and attention, that, too, seems to come completely natural to him.

Words Rayane Abou Jaoude

Photography Celine Meunier