Article: Simplicity is a Strength by Munir Nasr

My name is Munir Nasr I am a Lebanese photographer. I believe that simplicity is a strength. I am so in my life with my family members, friends and I am so in my photos when possible. Besides simplicity in my photos, I always have a center of interest, for example when taking a general view scene I try to have an interesting element in the foreground, wait for a nice sunset or work on a special type of lighting.

When people see nice photographs many of them don’t realize how much effort went into taking them. Sometimes I return to the same location several times in order to take the picture with the perfect lighting or wait a few hours with the camera on the tripod till the sun rises or falls to just the right place in the photo.

It is in all my portrait pictures that my main concentration is on the eyes. I believe I was lucky to have worked as a photographer for the United Nations covering many subjects, my favorite being humanitarian topics for NGO’s along with the UN. Taking pictures of children, especially children of the Middle East with their black eyes always fascinated me.

The subject of the photo, in my opinion, is very important. A photo that tells a story is a successful photo, it is one that people will remember and like to keep. In this case, it is not the camera, but the man behind the camera who knows the subject and can take the photo accordingly at the right time. In my daily life, I look at things and people as if I am looking through the camera viewfinder and many times I wished I had the film behind my eye to capture specific expressions or views.

I have been awarded several international prizes and several articles have been written about my book and photo exhibitions. My deep thank you goes to all of them, but it is a small comment from an ordinary viewer, reader or an email with feedback that touches my heart much deeper.

Upon my final return to Lebanon after having worked with the UN for twenty years in Vienna I started rebuilding my photo library since it was all lost during the war in Lebanon. In addition to this, I’ve worked with advertising agencies and on several photo projects in addition to some donation work for a few Lebanese humanitarian organizations.

“Liban, Village du Ciel” was my first photo-book outside the UN in which I took the photos specifically to match father Mansour Labakys’ beautifully written text. 
It received very positive feedback from various highly political and cultural personalities including Pope Jean Paul II and heads of states from around the world. Father Labaky and I have just started planning a new audiovisual production together which will be completed by mid-2008.

My main piece of work in Lebanon has been my photo-book titled “LEBANON, through the lens of Munir Nasr” in 2005. The first edition was in English, which has so far been updated and reprinted 5 times. Today, the book is available in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian and the Arabic version which will be on the market soon is still in progress.
The text was written by Ms. Angelique Beaino, the foreword by Mr. Henry Zoghaib and the layout was done by Mrs. Mireille Nasr Aoun (my daughter).

The feedback from around the world was truly impressive and I am very proud of it.