Lebanese photographer Randa Mirza has been awarded the prestigious Prix Camera Clara 2025 for her compelling photographic series titled "Atlal (Ruins)," which provides a stark documentation of war-torn communities in southern Lebanon. The series will be on display at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) at the François Mitterrand site in Paris until March 29, 2026, offering visitors nearly a full year to experience this powerful work. The exhibition is part of a special initiative called "La photographie à tout prix" (Photography at Any Price), a year-long celebration of photographic prizes at France's national library. Mirza's large-format photographs capture the devastating aftermath of extensive bombing campaigns that struck numerous villages in southern Lebanon between August and December 2024, creating an unflinching visual record of destruction, displacement, and cultural loss that resonates far beyond the region's borders.
Guillaume Piens, who served as president of the distinguished prize jury, offered profound insight into the selection of Mirza's work. In his official statement, Piens explained that the jury was deeply struck by the poignant quality of Mirza's view-camera photographs, which were created using traditional large-format techniques. He emphasized that these images transcend conventional documentary photography through their exceptional formal composition and aesthetic power, transforming the documentation of destruction into what he described as a "theatre of memory." According to Piens, the series functions simultaneously as an act of denunciation against the devastating tragedy of war and as an artistic attempt at repair and healing. The Prix Camera Clara, which has become increasingly recognized in the international photography community for identifying groundbreaking contemporary work, selected Mirza's series from a competitive field of submissions from around the world.
The title "Atlal" carries profound cultural and literary significance in Arabic tradition, directly translating to "ruins" while referencing a poetic convention that dates back to pre-Islamic times. In classical Arabic literature, poets would traditionally begin their qasidas (odes) by contemplating the ruins of abandoned campsites and dwellings, using these physical remnants as powerful metaphors for personal loss, collective memory, and the inevitable passage of time. Mirza deliberately invokes this rich heritage to create a bridge between contemporary devastation and centuries of Arabic literary and artistic expression. Her photographs depict villages that have been reduced to rubble and ash, where homes, schools, and community spaces have been transformed into what the artist describes as "heaps of stones—wounds in the landscape" that expose both the cruelty of armed conflict and the heartbreaking vulnerability of human settlements and cultural heritage.
This deep connection to poetic tradition finds expression across centuries of Arabic literature. Mirza's title and concept reference the famous pre-Islamic poet Antar ibn Shaddad, who wrote in his renowned verses: "Have poets left any space to compose? Have you recognized the imagined dwelling?"—lines that poignantly question whether any words remain capable of adequately describing such profound loss and displacement. In more recent times, the Egyptian poet Ibrahim Nagi explored similar themes of ruin and nostalgia in his work, which was famously set to music and performed by the legendary vocalist Oum Kalthoum in 1966, reaching millions across the Arab world. These cultural references underscore how ruins have served as fundamental pillars of Arabic artistic expression for over a millennium, while also forming a significant part of Lebanon's visual and literary representation in recent decades, particularly during periods of civil conflict, foreign intervention, and attempted reconstruction.
Drawing on important mid-20th century art historical theory, Mirza actively engages with the distinction made by renowned scholar H.W. Janson between "ruin" and "debris." Janson defined a ruin as a relatively well-preserved architectural remnant that serves as a window onto history and memory, while debris represents an amorphous, meaningless mass of fragments without narrative or context. Mirza observes that the destroyed houses in southern Lebanon have been reduced not even to ruins in Janson's sense, but to anonymous debris—materials destined for mechanical clearance and historical erasure. In response to this double violence of destruction and forgetting, her artistic project seeks to restore these structures' presence as meaningful vestiges and re-establish historical continuity in the face of war, which she characterizes as "a machine of rupture." Through her careful composition, thoughtful framing, and large-format presentation, she attempts to reclaim these sites from impending oblivion and grant them renewed cultural and memorial significance.
Mirza's technical approach directly reinforces her conceptual and political goals. She employs a large-format Crown Graflex 4x5 view camera, a traditional analog apparatus that requires extensive preparation, careful focusing, and lengthy exposure times for each photograph. This deliberate, meditative process mirrors the ancestral tradition of composing poetry before ruins, where contemplation, patience, and meticulous craftsmanship were essential to creating lasting artistic works. The resulting images possess exceptional clarity, depth, and detail, allowing viewers to examine the intimate textures of destruction while simultaneously contemplating broader themes of loss, resilience, and cultural survival. The exhibition at the BnF's François Mitterrand location on Quai François Mauriac provides a contemplative space for visitors through March 2026, offering a crucial opportunity for international audiences to reflect on the ongoing impact of conflict and the vital role of art in preserving memory, bearing witness, and potentially fostering understanding across divides.
