This exhibition, held in Sursock’s Fouad Debbas Collection Gallery presents a selection of cartes-de-visite and studio photographs from The Fouad Debbas Collection, a photographic collection comprising over 30,000 images from the Middle East from 1830 till the 1960s. The communication design for this exhibition focuses on the ideas of “object” and “scale”, and is dressed with a referential typographic scheme and a distinctive attention to color.
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MTG-Picturing Identity-Signature
The Engravers Latin type scheme from the end of the 19th century makes reference to the age of the photographic collection itself. It is paired here with a contemporary Arabic type design based on the Naskh calligraphic style.
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MTG-Picturing Identity-Poster
After many tests, and to express the generally smaller size of artifacts in the exhibition, this albumen mounted print from the 1890s by Georges Saboungi is handheld for the shot. The green shade is borrowed from the object to act as the exhibition’s primary color.
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MTG-Picturing Identity-Poster in context
The exhibition poster with its play on scale is best experienced to size and in context.
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MTG-Picturing Identity-Wall text
Combined with the dark brown walls of Sursock’s Fouad Debbas Collection Gallery, the exhibition’s green shade gives a memorable color identity to the show.
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MTG-Picturing Identity-Exhibition space 01
The dark rooms along with images of things past contribute to the exhibition’s slightly ghostly atmosphere.
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MTG-Picturing Identity-Exhibition space 02
The exhibition combines wall-mounted material with objects in a glass display table.
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MTG-Picturing Identity-Caption
Paper with the exhibition’s green color is used as the backing for the captions which sometimes include extended information.
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MTG-Picturing Identity-Group Caption
In some collective captions, artifacts are easily identified with the help of placement diagrams.
