When Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon raided an Israeli border outpost in July 2006, killing three soldiers and taking two as prisoners, a war ignited. Israel bombarded the country with countless air strikes, killing hundreds of civilians. Magnum Photographer Paolo Pellegrin traveled to Lebanon on assignment for the New York Times, documenting a country under attack. His pictures depict the suffering of the Lebanese people as they witness the destruction of their cities and homes as well as the deaths of their loved ones. The untitled photo above shows refugees arriving in Tyre after fleeing their homes in southern Lebanon. Like many of Pellegrin’s images, it contains qualities of abstraction, forcing the viewer into active interpretation. “I am more interested in a photography that is unfinished, a photography that is suggestive and can trigger a conversation or dialogue. There are pictures that are closed, finished, to which there is no way in.”
Pellegrin’s work in Lebanon earned him the 2007 Robert Capa Gold Medal, one of photojournalism’s highest honors, and was the basis for his book, Double Blind: Lebanon Conflict 2006. Fovea Exhibitions is presenting “Double Blind,” a show drawn from Pellegrin’s recent book through, March 2 in their gallery at 143 Main Street in Beacon. (845) 765-2199; www.foveaeditions.org.