Photographer Alain Licari is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this documentary photography. From the project ‘A few hours in Chatila’. To see Alain’s body of work, click on any photograph.

The tension is thick. Despite the authorizations, my two guides tell me to hurry. Photographers are not welcome, and the stares are inquisitive and hostile. So, there’s no time to dawdle, no time to frame, no time to find the right settings. I just shoot as I see fit.

We’ll see later.

”Not this building, it’s a political office. People will think you’re a spy”. We pick up the pace, moving fast. We pass from one street to the next – narrow and dark, like the one before and the one after. The sky is low. You can hardly see it, hidden by thousands of electric wires that bear witness to the neighborhood’s overcrowding. “It’s been worse since the Syrians arrived. They’ve added floors to the buildings”.

Just like the history that crushes our shoulders: posters from another era, portraits, symbols and flags. Everything is there to remind us of a bloody past and a future that promises to be just as bloody. But as we turn a corner – another one, on a dilapidated wall – the name of an Argentine footballer brings a smile to my face that I hadn’t seen coming.

“Over there, it’s Sabra. We can’t go there, I didn’t get the authorization”.

BIOGRAPHY

I was born in France, lived in Spain for a few years and worked in New York from 2015 to 2020. From September 2020, I shared my time between Guinea and France.

A self-taught photographer, I am inspired by humanist and social photography in black and white, and more particularly by great masters such as Raymond Depardon, Sebastiao Salgado, Mary Hellen Mark, Dorothy Lange and Eugène Smith. 

My photographic work revolves around people and communities who live on the margins of [society] the system or whose daily lives can take on a universal value. I immerse myself as closely as possible to them, sharing long moments together; I observe and seek the right distance to then relay these stories that question current events and our lifestyles.

My photographic approach is close to that of a [film] documentary, in that I take the time to produce my series and return regularly to the places I have previously photographed. This allows me to delve deeper into a subject, exploring it from different angles and observing its evolution over time. But I also strive to produce aesthetically pleasing photography, paying particular attention to framing and composition, often inspired by the cinema. My photographic work is regularly exhibited in France and abroad (USA, Italy, Chili, Macedonia, Guinea...); is selected for galleries and festivals.

All images and text © Alain Licari