“Masters of Secrets” at Beiteddine, a photography exhibition honoring the Druze community, signed by Lebanese-French photographer Jacques Debs in August 2019.
The secret lies not only in capturing photographs of the elders, children, and women of the “mysterious” sect, as described by Nerval and Lamartine, but in the shooting technique itself. Debs wanted them to appear to the eye as if they were taken in the eighteenth century, when in fact they were taken between 2017 and 2018.
The exhibition included 45 photographs documenting the lives of some Druze families in the mountain, especially the Sheikhs, their traditions, and their relationship with the place, work, environment, and architecture. The Druze community opened its doors for the first time to a photographer since the invention of photography in 1839, as Debs tells Reuters, and the exhibition succeeded after more than one attempt and more than one effort, and with the support of Druze political, social, and cultural figures.
You can watch the interview of “Al-Modon” newspaper with the photographer Debs in the attached video.
