Syria Al-Assad, a collection of photographs offering a cultural kaleidoscope of a dynastic dictatorship, is a nominee for the German Photobook Prize 2015.
New York Times photographer Oliver Hartung spent two years in Syria between 2007 and 2009 taking pictures of timeworn monuments and distressed political posters depicting the Assad family, in power since 1971. Travelling to Syria on a broader mission in the Middle East, Hartung was initially struck by the overwhelming and recurring political paraphernalia on the roads in homage to the family. He began photographing them from the window of his moving car.
What emerges is a lexicon of billboards and official mosaics that showcase a collective loyalty to Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez, as well as a sense of national unity that has since been brutally abandoned. Hartung deftly strings this sequence together in an informed, yet provocative, way. The inscriptions below the photographs prove just as powerful and revealing.
The book is being recognized at a time when the Syrian conflict spirals into its fourth year. On the heels of continued violence and political bedlam, this photobook provides a time-capsuled panorama of the Syrian government over the last half-century.
Syria Al-Assad was published with Spector Books and now boasts 30 limited edition copies. To date, these photographs may be the only visual memorial of a 40-year political reign.
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