PHOTO EXHIBIT : SYRIA IN BLACK AND WHITE

Crossroads of civilizations, Syria has experienced painful and tragic events in recent years. Palmyra, a heritage of our common past, between East and West, is its martyred symbol.

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This unique photo report is a tribute to the beauty of this country, to the women and men who built, loved and protected it. Invited in 2002 to the Aleppo photography festival, Michel Eisenlohr decided to hit the road from Marseille. Like the writers who made their “voyage to the Orient” in the nineteenth century, he apprehends this territory by road, over the miles. As travel diary, a camera and the choice of black and white.

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Hanging on the wall or integrated into the video system present in the windows and on the walls, the visitor will be able to both discover the works of Michel Eisenlhor, and the archaeological journey of the MAM.

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The pedagogical discourse towards schoolchildren will be that of optimism_ showing what was and what must be restored and revalued in opposition to widely disseminated images, often recurring massive destruction which may suggest that reconstruction is impossible ...

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The photographer

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Born in La Ciotat in 1974, Michel Eisenlohr has been an author photographer for fifteen years.

His photographic itinerary is the fruit of a passion for travel literature, of a university course on the rites of Initiation, and of this taste for others that he renews at each destination.

It was during a trip to Dogon country in 1998 that he made his first pictures. Since then, he has continued his reporting in France and abroad, around the Mediterranean, from West Africa to the Middle East, in India or more recently in Iceland or Asia.

He focuses on urban landscapes, with the first theme of his youthful city, Marseille, and portrays Genoa, Porto, Aleppo, Reykjavik and Hong Kong. Spirit of cities, contemporary architectures, memory of places and territories in change: so many subjects on which he likes to focus his gaze during personal reports or by responding to numerous commissions from cultural institutions. His next long-term project will lead him in the footsteps of the lighthouses built in the 19th century along the coast of the former Ottoman Empire.

With these multiple facets, Michel Eisenlohr's work assumes great artistic freedom. Photographer of traces, light and sensitivity, his work is regularly presented in France and abroad, and is the subject of publications.

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Photo : (c) Michel Eisenlohr