The following photographs are attributed to Walid Raad who donated them to The Atlas Group in 2002. In the statement accompanying the donation, Raad noted:

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In the summer of 1982, I stood along with others in a parking lot across from my mother’s apartment in East Beirut, and watched the Israeli land, air and sea assault on West Beirut. The PLO along with their Lebanese and Syrian allies retaliated, as best

they could. East Beirut welcomed the invasion, or so it seemed and that much is certain. West Beirut resisted it, or so it seemed, and that much is certain.

 

One day, my mother even accompanied me to the hills around Beirut to photograph the invading Israeli army stationed there. Soldiers rested their bodies and their weapons as they waited for their next orders to attack or retreat. I was fifteen in 1982, and wanted to get as close as possible to the events, or as close as my newly acquired camera and lens permitted me. Clearly not close enough. This past year, I came upon the carefully preserved negatives from that time. I decided to look again.