Background

The disappearance of portraiture as an art form can be felt the world over, as photography has become more accessible and widespread and as artists have chosen to work in more popular, abstract forms. Perhaps nowhere is this loss more acutely felt than in the Middle East, where the death of the art form collides with cultural unrest and upheaval, especially in places like Syria. Syrian artist Hrair Sarkissian uses the photographs featured in Background to document and lament the fading of portraiture from the Syrian artistic tradition. This book features beautifully haunting images of portrait backgrounds absent of their subjects, symbolizing the vanishing point of not only these spaces, but of time and cultural identity.