Looking for something?

Tap outside or press close

InspirationPhotography

Serge Najjar reveals the beauty of Beirut through minimalist, geometric photography

Remember the unfair old saying, "It's like Beirut on a bad day"? Well that's not the case when you see the city today, which has been rebuilt and modernised since the end of the Lebanese Civil War.

Written By:
Person holding an umbrella walking past a modernist white building with geometric slatted panels in Beirut

Full of creativity and a thriving community of artists, designers and photographers, the capital is a beautiful, modern metropolis with contemporary architecture and tall skyscrapers, bursting with colour and gleaming in the sunlight.

Serge Najjar was born in Beirut and is a practicing lawyer there. In his spare time, he loves to photograph his home city, focusing on "what brought order to chaotic Beirut and what brings the ordinary closer to art". Playing with shadow and light – often with a lone person moving through each frame – his incredible geometric, minimalist images are then shared on Instagram where he has over 75,000 followers.

Represented by Galerie Tanit in Munich, Serge's pictures "place the viewer within a world where reality and fantasy meet. They capture the passing of time, or a space where the transient disposition of man would inhabit ideal radical constructions. Motionless variations on a theme, the photographs engage in a dialogue, complete each other or not, but always create a singular space that is inhabited by the onlooker within the space they are presented in."

Via direct submission | All images courtesy of Serge Najjar

A lone figure in blue walks across a stark concrete platform with geometric white and black angular forms casting dramatic shadows against a grey textured wall
Person leaping between concrete platforms against a clear blue sky in Serge Najjar's minimalist photograph of Beirut's geometric architecture
A cylindrical tower with greenish-tinted windows framed by concentric black and white geometric patterns and 3D cube designs on the surrounding building facade
Person climbing geometric blue, white and grey diamond patterned wall in Beirut by photographer Serge Najjar
Aerial view of five circular openings in a white wall with two people standing inside the largest one, casting geometric shadows
A solitary figure stands beneath a massive geometric concrete structure with sharp angular lines against a white wall in Beirut
White electrical outlet protruding from a deep red wall with a single yellow cable hanging down
Silhouette of a solitary figure standing on a reflective platform against a clear blue sky and sea, framed by geometric black lines forming an arrow shape pointing towards the horizon
Person in dark clothing crouching beneath a white building wall with geometric brown and black triangular shapes framing a window with dramatic shadows
Man peering out from a rectangular opening in a vast terracotta brick wall
Person peering from a small black doorway in a minimalist geometric composition featuring a large terracotta-coloured rectangular form against grey tiling
A lone figure in white stands on a rooftop beside a dark door and window, with geometric shadows cast by stairs descending across a grey wall against a clear blue sky
A solitary figure stands within a towering curved architectural void, dwarfed by stark black and white geometric forms in Beirut
A person stands in a window frame on a weathered, peeling beige building wall with two tall rectangular window openings beside them in Beirut
White wall punctuated with circular perforations revealing doorways and windows of varying colours including blue, green, orange and brown in Beirut
Share

Further Reading