Serge Najjar

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From New York to Beijing, countless strangers dash across city streets in a constant state of frenzy, rushing to their destinations. But every now and then we see someone pause, marveling at his or her surroundings. It is this stillness that Serge Najjar seeks, with one simple guideline, “It is not about what you see but how you see it.”

Five years ago Najjar started photographing the interaction of people and architecture in his native Beirut. Influenced by the work of Kazimir Malevich, Josef Albers, Ellsworth Kelly, Frank Stella, and Alexander Rodchenko, Najjar took to the streets, focusing his lens on daily routines: construction workers sitting on a building ledge during lunch break, the sharp lines of a high-rise facade, a man looking out an open window, and children sitting on a windowsill. Whether working in Beirut, Munich or other places he visits, Najjar’s vision is unwavering - to show other people what they may not see themselves. As he states:

“There is no such thing as an ideal place to photograph, or an ideal city. Architecture inspires me, but my whole approach towards photography is to focus on what people consider as common... the people I photograph are complete strangers. I never plan where I go and what or who to shoot. My images are faithful to what I see. And every single Saturday morning I am convinced that I will never capture the picture I had the chance to capture the week before…. It is a thin line between the ugly and the beautiful, the ordinary and the extraordinary, between chaos and order.“

Ever since I started photography, a few years ago, I have followed one simple principle: “It is not about what you see but how you see it”.

When I started clicking and capturing real life around me, all the art books I had read during my childhood made sense: From Cubism and Abstract Art to Russian Avant Garde and Constructivism... Each single image had determined the way I looked at things around me when I was put against the challenge to create.

When you look at things with a new eye, you live again. You realise how powerful you can become just by pushing others to see what they may not be able to see by themselves. You also end up realising that there is no such thing as an ideal place to photograph, or an ideal city. Architecture can, of course, be a source of inspiration, but what makes things more interesting is questioning ourselves about contexts, aesthetics, and our ability to redefine our understanding of what we already think we know, and exploring the thin line between the ugly and the beautiful, the ordinary and the extraordinary, between chaos and order, reality and Art…