In Beirut's Achrafieh district stands a dilapidated house, its chipped paint obscured by an overgrown garden. The only way in is through a roofless room on the side of the abandoned structure. This is just one of 700 deserted buildings explored and photographed by Gregory Buchakjian in “Abandoned Dwellings: A History of Beirut,” a new book culminating a nearly decade-long documentary project.
Buchakjian launched the book on Nov. 29 at the Sursock Museum in Beirut in tandem with a photography exhibition, “Abandoned Dwellings: Display of Systems,” which runs Nov. 8 through Feb. 11, 2019, and also features a short film. A Beirut native, Buchakjian is an art historian, multidisciplinary visual artist and director of the School of Visual Arts at Alba, the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts.