{"id":17079,"date":"2024-12-08T16:49:14","date_gmt":"2024-12-08T16:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/?p=17079"},"modified":"2024-12-08T16:49:14","modified_gmt":"2024-12-08T16:49:14","slug":"it-is-abhorrent-to-stage-an-image-a-conversation-with-george-azar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/2024\/12\/08\/it-is-abhorrent-to-stage-an-image-a-conversation-with-george-azar\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;It is Abhorrent to Stage an Image&#8221; A Conversation with George Azar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none;\" title=\"Embed Player\" src=\"https:\/\/play.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/34334315\/height\/192\/theme\/modern\/size\/large\/thumbnail\/yes\/custom-color\/e7e7e7\/time-start\/00:00:00\/playlist-height\/200\/direction\/backward\/font-color\/000000\" width=\"100%\" height=\"192\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Embed Player\" src=\"https:\/\/play.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/34528900\/height\/192\/theme\/modern\/size\/large\/thumbnail\/yes\/custom-color\/e8e8e8\/time-start\/00:00:00\/playlist-height\/200\/direction\/backward\/font-color\/000000\" height=\"192\" width=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"\" webkitallowfullscreen=\"true\" mozallowfullscreen=\"true\" oallowfullscreen=\"true\" msallowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border: none;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Born in 1959, George Azar was the descendant of Lebanese olive farmers who had set sail from Beirut a century earlier. They settled in South Philadelphia, a working-class enclave\u2014later immortalized in the \u2018Rocky\u2019 films. It contained a mix of Italians, Irish, Polish, Jewish, and Lebanese families, a tough, mafia-controlled neighborhood where people staked their claims street by street. There was an old man on his block nicknamed \u201cTitanic&#8221; because he had survived the 1912 disaster by scrambling up from steerage into a lifeboat. Tales of migration, survival, and identity\u2014woven into the fabric of his youth\u2014shaped Azar\u2019s worldview long before he ever picked up a camera.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17089\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17089\" style=\"width: 568px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17089\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/74e18d_409d10748fe0459e9a327b94a8ce62abmv2.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"568\" height=\"432\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17089\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A shepherd in a field of flowers: the cover of George\u2019s book, \u2018Palestine: A Photographic Journey\u2019<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After graduating from UC Berkeley in Political Science, he postponed graduate school to see\u00a0 first-hand a war he had only read about. He covered the Lebanese Civil War as a front line news photographer, immersing himself in the conflict. In retrospect, he says, it was his South Philly upbringing\u2014where kids carried weapons, race wars were common and identities were constantly in negotiation\u2014that equipped him to navigate Beirut\u2019s sectarian divides.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17087\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17087\" style=\"width: 645px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17087 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/AZAR-Beita-Women-e1732193371973.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"645\" height=\"990\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17087\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Girls on a hill in Beita, West Bank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The war brought moments that could be scripted for an absurdist play, like the teenage Shia gunmen and snipers who called themselves \u201cThe Smurfs\u201d. The dissonance between their youthful na\u00efvet\u00e9, and the brutal violence they lived mirrored the contradictions his photography sought to capture.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17073\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17073\" style=\"width: 867px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17073\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/BP-14.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"867\" height=\"1300\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17073\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u2018Nero\u2019 of the Smurfs with adapted gun<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>South Philly equipped Azar with more than just street smarts. He grew up in Philadelphia fight gyms. Boxing was a skill which served him well, not for throwing punches, but for knowing how to take them\u2014and also, crucially, anticipating when they were coming. Those skills and instincts likewise served him in the unpredictable and brutal world of war photography.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17077\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17077\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17077\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/GA-010.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"784\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17077\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crying old man and kids looking on, Bedawi, Tripoli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Azar learned the unwritten rules of the new industry where the pictures most in demand were \u2018Bang Bang\u2019 photos: high-drama, front-line images that convey the raw violence of war.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17076\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17076\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17076\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/GA-009.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"780\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17076\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The \u2018Smurfs\u2019, west side of the Green Line, Beirut, 1984<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>His first photo, captioned Machine Gun Alley, marked his entry into the profession. A strong image from the front line sold for $60, while a photo of a woman firing a weapon might land on front pages worldwide. Some photographers gave in to the temptation to stage scenes. Azar found the practice indefensible. \u201cTo me, it is abhorrent to stage an image.\u201d The power of photojournalism lies in its truth, he says\u2014a principle he now imparts to his students at the American University of Beirut as missiles rain down on the city once again.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17074\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17074\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17074\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/BP-15-copy-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"827\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17074\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Smurfs shooting their longe-range weapon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But the photographs Azar values most capture often quiet, deeply human moments: an elderly man weeping into his bed; a mother standing amidst the ruins of her Gaza kitchen; the Palestinian shepherd in a field of yellow wildflowers that graces the cover of his book, <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Palestine-Photographic-George-Baramki-Azar\/dp\/0520075447\">\u2018Palestine, A Photographic Journey\u2019 (UC Press, 1991).<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17072\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17072\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17072\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Azar-Tripoli-fighting-1-of-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"440\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17072\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">PLO fighters walking past burning oil refineries towards the front line, Bedawi, north Tripoli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Azar left Lebanon after the war, physically and emotionally drained. He returned to Philadelphia, and worked for the local newspaper. But the pull of the Middle East proved irresistible. The First Intifada drew him back, beginning a new chapter in his career, this time focused on the struggle for freedom in Palestine.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17078\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17078\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17078\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/sli_george_azar_beit_beirut_0032.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"793\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17078\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Checkpoint with skull, near the corniche of Beirut, circa 1984<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In the 1990s, he also documented the life of Arab-British boxing sensation Prince Naseem Hamed, merging his passions for storytelling, boxing and the complexities of Arab identity.<\/p>\n<p>In conversation, Azar shared astonishing stories: the Irish junkies linked to the IRA who lived<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17092\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17092\" style=\"width: 126px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-17092\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Picture1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"126\" height=\"154\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17092\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">George Azar and friend by the Royale Hotel, near the Green Line, Beirut<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>above him; Issa Abdullah Ali, a renegade African-American soldier who converted to Islam, defected and joined Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard and fought the Israelis in the 1982 battle for Beirut; and his encounters with legends of journalism Robert Fisk, Patrick Cockburn and photojournalist Don McCullin.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17075\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17075\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17075\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Fedayeen-1983-Battle-of-Baddawi-Camp.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"790\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17075\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Boys in Tripoli, during the battle of the camps, circa 1983<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Our conversation unfolded against a backdrop of Israeli drone sounds, power outages, and rising tensions\u2014all grim reminders that Lebanon is once again in the grip of war.<\/p>\n<p>The country faces yet another reshaping, one that will demand extraordinary resilience from its people and, perhaps, a reimagined political future.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17084\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17084\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17084\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Scanned-Image-121320008.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"788\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17084\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yasser Arafat and bodyguards under fire, North Lebanon, circa 1983<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17081\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17081\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17081\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/3-am-Workers-At-Erez-Gate-Gaza.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17081\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers at Erez gate checkpoint, Gaza, circa 2006<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17086\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17086\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17086\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Untitled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"804\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17086\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Untitled<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17085\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17085\" style=\"width: 888px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17085\" src=\"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Untitled-3.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"888\" height=\"1300\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17085\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Untitled<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Cassandra Voices is delighted to be collaborating with the charity Collateral Global on a photographic competition depicting life under lockdown, open to professionals and amateurs alike. It will culminate in the production of a photography book to be published under the\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/XZ5jE3rmzp\">pic.twitter.com\/XZ5jE3rmzp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 CassandraVoices (@VoicesCassandra) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VoicesCassandra\/status\/1861451135644496281?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 26, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Born in 1959, George Azar was the descendant of Lebanese olive farmers who had set sail from Beirut a century earlier. They settled in South Philadelphia, a working-class enclave\u2014later immortalized in the \u2018Rocky\u2019 films. It contained a mix of Italians, Irish, Polish, Jewish, and Lebanese families, a tough, mafia-controlled neighborhood where people staked their claims [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17083,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[89,277,758,1916,3664,4324,4701,7298,8607,9689],"class_list":["post-17079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast","tag-with","tag-abhorrent","tag-azar","tag-conversation","tag-george","tag-image","tag-it","tag-podcast","tag-stage","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}