The collections in the Arab Image Foundation's care are an eclectic selection gathered by its members and through deposits, as well as donations between 1997 and 2023. The collections are composed of a variety of photographic practices, photographic materials, eras, and are from Southwest Asia and North Africa and its diasporas. We invite you to visit our website regularly, to discover our newly digitised collections uploaded every Friday! To begin exploring the photographic objects across the collections, enter a keyword or search via facets.

You are also welcome to browse the on-site database anytime in the common library at the Arab Image Foundation in Kantari, Beirut. In addition, please take a look through our albums collection.

For any image inquiry and research assistance please download and fill the form here and send it to communications@arabimagefoundation.org

Collections
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Showing 18 collections with 1,895 digitised items
Muhamad Abdallah Abdel Moneim
Muhamad Abdallah Abdel Moneim
0049ab
A small personal collection showing Mohamad Abdallah, a photographer of Alexandria's middle class, setting up his large-format field camera and posing with friends. Also includes a father-and-son portrait with a colleague. Owner of Studio Mountasser; Akram Zaatari interviewed Abdallah on video.
Photographer(s) Fouad Nour, Mohamad Abdallah Abdel Moneim, Unidentified photographer
Location Egypt
personal collectionself-representationurban scenesgroup snapshots
Touma Arida
Touma Arida
0039ar
A three portrairs family collection from the 1920s and 1930s of the Arida family including a portrait of Antoun Arida examining a corpse at the Saint Joseph school of medicine.
Photographer(s) Leon, Unidentified photographer
Location Beirut (governorate), Beqaa (governorate), Lebanon
educational institutionSaint Joseph School of Medicinescientific representations
Armand
Armand
0043ar
A large collection of portraits by Armenak Arzrouni (1901–1963), known as Armand, the master portrait-maker of mid-century Cairo's elite. Includes images of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, King Faysal II of Iraq, queens, prime ministers, film stars, and cabaret models. Central to Zaatari's Cairo Portraits exhibition and book (1999).
Photographer(s) Armand Arzrouni, Armenak Arzrouni, Unidentified photographer
Location Egypt
upper classroyaltyofficial portraitscinematic aestheticsarts and entertainmentpop culture
Mona el Assad
Mona el Assad
0040as
Snapshots from excursions and school trips in 1930s–1940s Egypt, highlighted by a group of friends hiking as the Smoke Mountain fades in the distance. Selected by Fouad Elkoury from Mona el Assaad's albums during a Cairo research trip in 1998.
Photographer(s) Unidentified photographer
Location Cairo (governorate), Red Sea (governorate), Egypt
snapshotsoutingschool trip
Hamid Belcadi
Hamid Belcadi
0014be
Snapshots of home and family life in Morocco during the first half of the twentieth century. Met by Yto Barrada and Fouad Elkoury in Salé in 1997; some images used in Album Marocains (1999).
Photographer(s) Fernand Aimé, Unidentified photographer
Location Casablanca-Settat, Rabat-Salé-Kénitra, Morocco
personal collection
Chafic el Soussi
Chafic el Soussi
0038so
A cross-sectional view of daily life in mid-century Saida through the photography of Chafic el Soussi, covering weddings, school events, car accidents, surgeries, the 1956 earthquake, and 1970s resistance groups.
Photographer(s) Chafic el Soussi, Anis el Soussi, Unidentified photographer
Location South Lebanon (governorate), Egypt, Lebanon
everyday lifeschool eventeducational institutioncar accidentsearthquakefuneraldisplacementmilitarypolitical figure
Mamdouh Muhamad Fathallah
Mamdouh Muhamad Fathallah
0051fa
Three photographs by teenaged hobbyist Mamdouh Mohamad Fathallah from 1940s Alexandria, including a self-framed image titled 'Peak,' a double-exposure of himself throwing a punch at his own doppelgänger, and a mirror self-portrait in pajamas. Remarkable for creative self-invention in the absence of appealing subject matter.
Photographer(s) Mamdouh Muhamad Fathallah
Location Egypt
amateur practicesdarkroom effectssnapshots of everyday life
Georges Haddad
Georges Haddad
0136ha
Large overhead projector transparencies of female nudes believed to date from 1920s–1930s Lebanon, thought to have been made as intermediate steps for paintings. Their subjects are unidentified but may have been prostitutes visiting physician Farid Haddad's clinic. Donated by Farid's great-nephew George Haddad.
Photographer(s) Farid Haddad
Location Egypt, Lebanon
the body
Helou
Helou
0003he
A family album of portraits spanning the life of soldier Elias Helou (b. 1915 est.), from youth scenes in Damascus, Homs, and Lebanon to images of him as a uniformed soldier in the Army of the Levant. Collected by Fouad Elkoury in Rmeil in 1995 and donated to the AIF at its founding.
Photographer(s) Abel, Moussa Kabalan, Unidentified photographer, Vartan Derounian
Location Lebanon, Palestine, Syria
family albumbiographical collectionWorld War IIsportArmy of the Levantmilitarymasculinty
Abdel Latif Jabro
Abdel Latif Jabro
0012ja
Snapshots from Morocco between the 1950s and 1980 recording political demonstrations, a birthday party, a bride, and Abdel Latif Jabro posing at Moscow State University. Met by Yto Barrada and Fouad Elkoury in Rabat; some images used in Album Marocains (1999).
Photographer(s) Unidentified photographer, Photo Maradji A.P.P.M.
Location Casablanca-Settat, Fes-Meknes, Rabat-Salé-Kénitra, Moscow, Morocco, Russia
snapshotsfamily eventeducational institution
Georges Khayat
Georges Khayat
0005kh
Snapshots of the Khayat family on outings in Lebanon from the 1920s–1940s, including a wedding, an outdoor dinner, and a notable self-portrait in which Albert Khayat's head is absent due to imprecise framing. Selected from the family albums of George Khayat by Fouad Elkoury.
Photographer(s) Albert Khayat, Gulbenk, Jules Lind, Unidentified photographer
Location Beirut (governorate), Keserwan-Jbeil (governorate), Mount Lebanon (governorate), Lebanon
family albumouting snapshotsself-representationrailway
Marianne Khoury
Marianne Khoury
0046kh
Family images of comfortably middle-class life in Egypt and Lebanon in the first half of the twentieth century, including a 1926 wedding-day portrait of Egyptian film director Youssef Chahine and his wife Colette. Selected by Akram Zaatari and Fouad Elkoury during Cairo research trips in 1998.
Photographer(s) Unidentified photographer
Location Egypt, Lebanon
upper classmiddle class lifesnapshots of everyday lifecelebration
Samia Mahmoud
Samia Mahmoud
0032ma
Routine snapshots of Palestinian life from the 1920s–1950s in Gaza, Jericho, and Jerusalem. Embedded in the collection is the story of Samia Mahmoud's mother, Samieh Khairi, whose family home in Wadi Hnein speaks to Palestinian dispossession.
Photographer(s) Habouche A., Unidentified photographer
Location Gaza, Lydda, Jerusalem, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine
snapshots of everyday lifeeducational institutionvehicledisplacementdispossessionSupreme Muslim CouncilPalestine before Nakba
Georges Mikaelian Family
Georges Mikaelian Family
0137mi
Large-format glass plates and gelatin negatives by Aram Arnavoudian (Alban, 1883–1961) from the 1940s, showing Cairo's cosmopolitan elite including King Farouk, queens Nazli and Farida, and British officers, with Alban's trademark aggressive cropping and experimental composition. Temporarily deposited by Alban's apprentice Chris Mikaelian; central to Portraits du Caire (1999).
Photographer(s) Alban
Location Alexandria (governorate), Cairo (governorate), Egypt, Lebanon
samplingrepresentations of social classCairo upper classdouble exposure effectWorld War IIroyaltymilitary representationportraits of officers
Muhamad Sabri
Muhamad Sabri
0045sa
A small collection of 1940s–1950s photographs by Egyptian photographer Mohamad Sabri (1925–), including an experimental photomontage of a flying dove, a foreshortened image of scaffolding workers, and two portraits of a nude woman through frosted glass. Donated directly by Sabri to Akram Zaatari.
Photographer(s) Mohamad Sabri
Location Ad Daqahlīyah, Alexandria (governorate), Cairo (governorate), Egypt
darkroom effects
Yervant Yergatyan
Yervant Yergatyan
0023ye
A small sample of Studio Zahran's work from 1950s–1960s Jordan, including images of Petra and a wedding portrait of King Hussein (1935–1999). Selected by Fouad Elkoury from Yervant Yergatyan in Amman in 1997.
Photographer(s) Yervant Yergatyan, Zahran
Location Amman, Ma'an, Jordan
political representationsofficial eventroyalty
Khaled Youssef
Khaled Youssef
0048yo
Upper-middle-class Egyptian life from the mid-twentieth century, including portraits of bare-chested men and a naked boy, alongside images of workmen at a flour mill in Kafr Shokr. Donated by filmmaker Khaled Youssef, who had worked with Youssef Chahine; interview conducted by Akram Zaatari.
Photographer(s) Edward, Moutih, Unidentified photographer, X. Cokkinos
Location Egypt
nude undertonesmanufacturing industryworkerLabour
Mekki Zouaoui
Mekki Zouaoui
0011zo
A small family collection from 1930s–1940s Morocco including holiday images from Jerusalem, Seville, and France. Met by Yto Barrada and Fouad Elkoury in Rabat in 1997; some images appeared in Barrada's exhibition Album Marocains (1999).
Photographer(s) Unidentified photographer
Location Morocco, Palestine, France, Spain
Palestine before Nakba