Human and Space. Images of Conflict in the Levant Trilogy Project by Rita Leistner

Abstract

The aim of the article is to present the Levant Trilogy project of the Canadian war photographer Rita Leistner. In the summer of 2006, she left for Lebanon to report on the war between Israel and Hezbollah. She wanted to show the part of the reality of war, which had not been presented to a wider audience by photographers working there. As it turned out, it was only the beginning of an almost ten-year journey to three countries of the Levant: Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine. She wanted to meet the “others” and try to understand how conflict is felt on various sides of the border. Leistner was surprised to discover that in each of the countries she visited, she met friendly, open people, who reluctantly told her about their everyday longing for security, autonomy, and peaceful life. While building her visual stories, Leistner was guided by three themes: bombing sites, anti-bomb shelters, and security systems. Analyzing the visual story of Rita, we undertake both an attempt to reconstruct the narrative methods that she used in her works and the interpretation of emotions that are dominant in the published images.

Translated by Artur Skweres.