Five years on

This month Executive took a look at how Lebanon's industrial sector has been faring after it was devastated by Israeli air-raids during the 2006 war. Factories and industrial sites of all shapes and sizes were prime targets for Israeli bombers during the 34 day conflict.

Sewage on Beirut beach

Looks nice, yeah? Shame that the lovely reflection is in fact coming from a pool of stagnant water which flows freely from a storm drain straight onto one of the few remaining public beaches in Beirut.
These were for a massive story Executive is running this month by Sami Halabi about the myriad problems within Lebanon's water sector. Sounds boring, but when you've been waking up wondering if you'll have water today for the last few months like many here in Beirut, it makes for a compelling read – in short; government is shit, resources are mismanaged, usual story. I'm sure Sami will have the more eloquent version on his blog soon.

Zabaleen feature for Esquire Middle East

So Esquire gave me and Josh Wood a whole 8 pages for our feature on the Zabaleen. Awesome. Cannae wait to see this in print, which won't be too hard now as they've finally managed to get the Middle East edition on the shelves over here.

Life is hard...

Sometimes as a photographer and a journalist you get asked to do things that take great courage, to take one for the team... such as trying one of France's oldest champagnes, Ruinart, which is about to forge it's way into the highly competitive Lebanese drinks market. After carefully checking numerous 'flutes' throughout a mind boggling maze of creative canapés (foamed cheesey potatoes or champagne dipped in dry ice, anyone?), I can happily say it's safe to drink. Lebanon, you're welcome. Below, the founder of the feast, Ruinart's Jean Marc Galot.

Natural born killers

Well, not so natural. They're carefully bred to be hardcore fighting machines you'd think twice about playing fetch with. To see just how they're bred visit the website of the kennel these shots were taken at, feminists might be better to stay away...

This was an assignment that raised a few moral quandaries in the office, especially when we were trying to pick a shot for the cover. Taste won out over sensationalism and we went for the usual illustration. Read the story here. More up on the Executive site here.

From leaf to lips

As part of a special report into the country's Tobacco industry, I got to take a look inside the factory that produces Lebanon's homegrown, homemade 'Cedars' cigarettes - photos of the whole production process can be found on the photo gallery page here.

Cheers Time, don't mind if I do

Sami Halabi, our deputy ed, was patient enough to sit for me while I tried my hardest to recreate a poor mans' version of Marco Grob's portrait of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which was featured in the May issue of Time magazine. The lighting in it was awesome and there's no better way to learn than nicking tricks of those you admire.

Regular freelancer and drunken assailer of the Holiday Inn Nathaneal Massey was my guinea pig for the first attempt. The set up was all wrong but the shots came out kinda cool anyway.

Talking heads

A few head honchos from Lebanon's banking world gathered to listen to the above talking about banking stuff at a nice hotel. My attention got as far as the awesome steak rolls...

They yacked for ages, which meant a) I really needed those steak rolls by the end and, b) plenty of time to play with the lighting. Below is Yasser, Executive's editor in chief who was hosting the talk (i.e also capitalising on a journalist's innate ability to score great free grub).

Eli Khoury

Eli Khoury was one of the key figures behind the Cedar revolution, which booted the Syrians out of the country after Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination in 2005.
This was probably my favourite portrait session so far: a whole hour and a half while Khoury, head of Quantum advertising agency and owner of Now Lebanon news service, among other things, was interviewed for the magazine. Such a different feel from the usual five-minute CEO circus and tonnes of time to try different lighting set ups in their space-age 'Quantum Towers' office. Even the tea mugs made me look dowdy.

Palestinian refugee camps - Esquire

Here's a sneaky peek at a rough version of a ten page spread looking at Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, which I worked on with freelancer Josh Wood for Esquire Magazine's Middle East edition - it should be out in glossy goodness next month. This was a fascinating project to work on, possibly one of the most important issues facing the region, so props to the Esquire guys for giving it the coverage it deserves.

Joe Ayoub

Joe Ayoub of Brandcell marketing is another Executive contributer and takes the award for Beirut's coolest offices so far. You'll be able to read his words of wisdom next week sometime.

This blog is getting a bit monochromatic, apologies. Also, I think I should invest in a small step ladder - these last few pictures make it look like I'm about 3ft tall.

Karim Makarem

I finally sunk my teeth into the first of a bunch of portraits of business leaders who regularly contribute to the magazine. After an aborted attempt to get on the roof we settled for this interesting curved wall in the offices of the oft quoted Karim Makarem of Ramco real estate advisors, one of Beirut's top real estate figures. Curvy walls are bloody great. So are subjects who are quite willing to give you a reasonable chunk of their time to let you shoot them without making you feel like you're clogging up their schedule.

Corporate location portraiture is usually an exercise in overcoming a combination of far-too-busy-for-you subjects and less than ideal surroundings, but today was a refreshing change.

Touffar for Esquire gulf

This would have been my first magazine appearance but they put it back a month till March so Executive, which prints next week, pips them to it. Touffar are heavily politicised rappers from the Bekaa valley area of Lebanon. I couldn't understand a word of the concert but it was apparent they were pretty pissed. The unsubbed version of US freelancer and all round nice guy Josh Wood's story, as it will appear in next month's edition of Esquire gulf, is below. Cheers to Touffar for letting me blind them with flashes for the entire concert.