Artist from Lebanon
Bassem H. Boustany is an architect and photographer whose engagement with photography began in his teenage years, inspired by close personal influences. His architectural education played a formative role in shaping his visual language, fostering a sustained exploration of light, form, and spatial relationships.
His first exhibition marked a defining moment in his photographic journey, affirming his long-term commitment to the medium. His practice focuses primarily on landscape and street photography, where he seeks to reveal beauty within the ordinary and to capture fleeting moments amid urban and natural complexity.
Over the years, he has participated in several exhibitions in Lebanon, Rome, New York, and London, experiences that have further deepened his involvement in the photographic arts and expanded the international scope of his work.
Influenced by Impressionist painters as well as renowned photographers, his approach combines technical rigor with artistic sensitivity and an enduring sense of curiosity. Alongside his exhibition practice, he has authored several photography books exploring themes of memory, urban rhythm, abstraction, and emotional perception, including Street Chronicles: Taipei Through the Viewfinder, Vibrant Urbanism in Riyadh, and Emotions: A Journey Through Light and Motion. His forthcoming book, Drift, continues this exploration through a more introspective and abstract visual narrative.
He continues to develop new projects across exhibitions and publications, while encouraging emerging photographers to cultivate their own visual identities through observation, patience, and personal vision.
CRITICAL REVIEW: The diptych “Threshold of the Unseen” explores the fragility of the boundaries between inner consciousness and external identity. The work, conceived as a diptych, is very interesting: a blurred figure holds a feather, a symbol of transience and fragility; and in the second panel, the figure moves toward a luminous threshold, uncertain whether it is entering or exiting.
This duality between presence and transition, stasis and movement, perfectly embodies the ideas of a threshold between the visible and the invisible, of crisis and inner rebirth that are characteristic of NEW HORIZONS Exhibition.
It represents the passage from the known to the unknown, from fragility to the opening of new horizons, a conceptual core central to the exhibition.
Furthermore, “The Invention of Memory”, Bassem reflects on how memory is not a simple recollection, but an imaginative construction. He doesn’t describe an event; rather, the work evokes an emotional imprint or a residue of presence, a concept that goes beyond purely objective vision. “The Invention of Memory” explores how perception and identity emerge beyond immediate vision, aligning with the idea of self-redefinition and inner resilience through memory. – Dr. Carmela Loiacono, Art Curator
more. bassemhboustany.com | Instagram Profile
INTERVIEW with Bassem H. Boustany
Carmela Loiacono talks with Bassem H. Boustany who took part in the International Art Exhibition NEW HORIZONS – Authenticity, Resilience and Renewal in Matera, at Casa Cava, from March 21 to 27, 2026.
Carmela Loiacono – During the inauguration, it was a true honor to meet you and experience your presence firsthand. Your diptych “Threshold of the Unseen” shows, in the first panel (Held), a blurred figure gently holding a feather, a symbol of fragility and memory, and in the second panel (Passed), the figure moves toward a luminous threshold. Do you see these moments as an arrival, a departure, or something that exists in between?
How do you capture, in your photographic process, the tension between presence and transition, between stillness and movement, and between fragility and the opening toward new horizons?
Bassem H. Boustany – I don’t see these two moments as a clear arrival or departure. For me, they exist in between, in that brief instant where something is about to shift but has not yet resolved.
The first image, Held, is more introspective, almost suspended. The second, Passed, suggests movement, but without certainty. It is not clear whether the figure is entering or leaving. That ambiguity is important to me.
In my process, I use movement intentionally to reduce clarity. By doing so, the image moves away from description and becomes more open. The subject is no longer fixed, it becomes a presence rather than a figure.
This is where the tension appears. Not between opposites, but within the same moment. Stillness carries movement, and fragility carries a form of strength. I try not to resolve that tension, only to remain close to it.
Carmela Loiacono – Furthermore, “The Invention of Memory” evokes memory not as recollection, but as a creative construction. When photographing, how do you distinguish between what is “remembered” and what is emerging, imagined, or invented in that very moment?
Bassem H. Boustany – For me, memory is not something we retrieve, it is something we reconstruct.
When I photograph, I am not documenting a moment as it is. The use of movement and blur transforms what I see into something that already feels distant, almost like a memory forming in real time.
So I don’t really distinguish between what is remembered and what is imagined. The image exists somewhere in between. It is both a trace of something real and a projection of something internal. What interests me is precisely that instability, when the image is not fully defined and remains open to interpretation.
Carmela Loiacono – You wrote a beautiful reflection on the exhibition on your website, which I particularly appreciated. How does it feel to see your images engage with the architecture, light, and atmosphere of Matera, a city you could personally explore, and how has that experience influenced your sense of memory, presence, and awareness?
Bassem H. Boustany – Being in Matera was a very particular experience. It is a place where time feels layered rather than sequential. You don’t feel that the past is behind you. It is still present, embedded in the stone, in the spaces, and in the way the city unfolds.
Seeing my work in that environment felt natural. The ideas of transition and threshold were already part of the city itself. The architecture, the light, and even the silence carry that same sense of continuity and transformation.
It made me realize that the work was not only placed in Matera, but in some way aligned with it. The images did not need to adapt, they were already in dialogue with the space.
Carmela Loiacono – Reflecting on your work “Street Chronicles: Taipei Through the Viewfinder”, in which you explored fleeting moments of urban life and the poetry of the everyday, how do you see this approach evolving in your future projects?
Are there new themes, spaces, or ways of capturing memory and transition that you are beginning to explore?
Bassem H. Boustany – This project started in 2017, during a period when I was spending time in Taipei for work. It was a moment of observation, where I was capturing fragments of the city and its daily life.
I cannot say that today I have a fixed style. I am still exploring different approaches, whether urban photography, movement-based work, or black and white landscapes.
Black and white, for me, is not a nostalgic choice. It is a way to simplify and to focus on structure, light, and contrast. It removes distraction and allows the image to speak in a more direct and essential way. It is also closely related to my background as an architect, where form, rhythm, and composition are fundamental.
I try not to limit myself to a specific theme or style. I prefer to let the lens respond freely to what is in front of me, capturing moments as they come, without forcing a predefined intention. What connects the work is not a subject, but a way of seeing.
At the same time, I continue to develop my fine art approach. For me, art is not about conveying information, but about formation. It is a continuous process of learning, refining, and questioning. Every day brings new influences and new ways of seeing.
With my book Vibrant Urbanism in Riyadh, I explored the city through movement and abstraction, using techniques such as intentional camera movement and multiple exposures. The intention was not to document the city, but to express its energy, its rhythm, and the emotions felt within it.
Currently, I am working on a new project titled DRIFT, which continues this exploration. The work moves further away from representation and closer to sensation, where the image becomes less about place and more about perception.
In that sense, the themes I am beginning to explore are less tied to specific locations and more to states of transition, where the image exists between clarity and disappearance, between presence and absence. I am also interested in spaces that are not necessarily defined physically, but felt emotionally, where memory is not fixed, but continuously shifting.
I am no longer trying to capture a moment. I am trying to remain within it, at the point where it begins to dissolve.
