George Awde is featured in issue 233 of
Aperture Magazine which is focused on the theme of Family with an introduction written by Kaelen Wilson-Goldie:
"In 2007, Boston-born Lebanese photographer
George Awde began a series of color portraits of young men who had left their homes to settle in Beirut. Almost all of his subjects had fled to Lebanon from Syria, not because of political upheaval or outright war -- this was before demonstrations against the regime of Bashar al-Assad began in 2011 -- but becuase they were farmers and were suffereing the dire consequesnces of a terrible drought. In Beirut, they lived precariously, on the margins of the city, in the informal communities of people who do not have the status of official, legal belonging"
Awade's series focuses on the masculinity, fragile and delicate, he is quoted in the article as follows:
"Some of these boys have been here since they were twelve. In essence they're Beirutis. But they're not Lebanese, and so they don't really belong according to the usual narratives. But they've created a home here, a group of men making a home together as men, creating a family that consists only of men... I found it really beautiful to see these men taking care of each other."The series has continued as a growing collaboration between subjects and artists, as many of these young men left Lebanon and returned to Syria to fight in the war, or to travelin on to Europe to persue the possibility of a better life, many of them continue to communicate with Awde through the use of WhatsApp images sent via mobile phones. Through this exchange of images Awde has maintained a 'photographic relationship' with his subjects.
Many of the images are included in his series,
'Scale Without Measure' which was exhibited as solo presentations at Lightwork in Syracuse, New York in 2017 and also are included in the touring exhibition, "In Transit" which will be presented in
Portland in 2018 at Blue Sky Gallery,
San Francisco at SF Camerawork opening in January 2019 and in San Diego at
San Diego State University Downtown Gallery, California in April 2019.
To see more on this issue of Aperture visit their website.
To see more on George Awde's work visit his website at
www.georgeawde.com or on
the East Wing website.
