This webinar was part of a ​ project of the Qatar National Library and in cooperation with University College London-Qatar and the British Library-Qatar Foundation Partnership, to raise awareness about the importance of preserving sound and audiovisual heritage in the Gulf and Arab regions and raising capabilities in the field of preservation and digitisation. It is now about twenty years ago that Lebanese photographers Fouad Elkoury and Samer Mohdad, together with Lebanese artist Akram Zaatari, decided to create an organization with the aim to preserve and study photographs from the Middle East, North Africa, and the Arab diaspora. In 1997 the Arab Image Foundation (AIF) began to operate officially as a nonprofit organization in Beirut. Conceived as an initiative to gather knowledge and promote awareness about the region’s photographic heritage through locating, collecting, and conserving photographs, the AIF now holds a collection of more than 600,000 photographs from Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Algeria, as well as Mexico, Senegal, and Argentina, dating from the mid-nineteenth century. [1] Curatorial work defines the mission of the AIF not only in the sense that it is safekeeping and managing a collection, but also in that it has always sought to make the collection visible to the public. One major tool has been an online image database, which makes approximately 20,000 photographs accessible. Another central medium of display is the exhibition format. Since its inception, the AIF has produced fifteen exhibitions that have traveled worldwide, often accompanied by comprehensive publications. Jacques Derrida, “Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression,” trans. Eric Prenowitz, Diacritics 25, no. 2 (summer 1995): 9–63, here 11, 27. How is colonial presence seen, felt, and documented in still and moving images? How are certain populations depicted in the photographic collections of the Arab Image Foundation – and how does the everyday feature in images taken through their lens?

Caisson foundation is a watertight retaining structure used as a bridge pier, construction of the dam, etc. It is generally used in structures that require a foundation beneath a river or similar water bodies. The reason for choosing the caisson is that it can be floated to the desired location and then sunk into place. Figure: Caisson Foundation In strap footing, the foundation under the columns is built individually and connected by a strap beam. Generally, when the edge of the footing cannot be extended beyond the property line, the exterior footing is connected by a strap beam with the interior footing. Figure: Cantilever or Strap Footing 5. Raft or Mat Foundation In the context of shrinking liberties across the Arab region and beyond, Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh, Kristine Khouri and Vartan Avakian - all three board members of the Arab Image Foundation - invite students to think beyond this precarity. They put together a hands-on remote Practitioners-in-Residence for the upcoming Spring semester at the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at NYU to challenge researchers, conservationists, archivists, artists, and writers to reflect on collective work practices and governance as well as custodianship and rights. Using the diverse collections at AIF, they prod us to imagine ways of taking care of a collective inheritance and to think critically about it in relation to our times. Siegfried Kracauer, “Photography,” trans. Thomas Y. Levin, Critical Inquiry 19, no. 3 (spring 1993): 421–436.Financial donations – institutions: Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development ▪ Cultural Emergency Response ▪ Cultural Protection Fund of the British Council ▪ Gerda Henkel Stiftung ▪ US Ambassadors’ Fund for Cultural Preservation ▪ Mariët Westermann and the Pardoe-Westermann Family Fund ▪ Middle East and Islamic Caucus of Franklin & Marshall College ▪ Luminous-Lint ▪ Oteri General Construction ▪ Moore Archives & Preservation LLC ▪ GAPS LLC ▪ Blue Shield ▪ Book Works ▪ American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works ▪ Savvy Wood Photography ▪ Benevity ▪ PhotoArts Studio ▪ Robert Rauschenberg Foundation ▪ Stanley Thomas Johnson Stiftung ▪ Europeana Foundation ▪ Rotary Club Essen-Gruga

The Arab Image Foundation extends its appreciation to our current generous supporters that make our activities possible. We are equally grateful to those who wish to remain anonymous. The second project is a series of video commissions, produced in collaboration with Cinema Galeries (Brussels). These video works were presented in the exhibition Videos on Beirut in the framework of Cinema Galeries’ yearly festival L’heure d’hiver in April 2022. Right: Vera Tamari’s father with ​ family and friends in Hebron, circa 1929. Standing in the middle with a white hat is Vera’s aunt Alexandra. Faik Tamari collection. In this exhibition, Nour Helou and Afrang Nordlöf Malekian present a series of photographs from the Asghar Beechareh, Photo Caron, Studio Marjan, and Photo Bahar Collections. They examine transformations of the concept of ​ beauty and gender norms over time. How are the notions of class, race, and gender staged through these photographs? Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery, Graham Foundation, LAXART View of “Every Building in Baghdad: The Rifat Chadirji Archives at the Arab Image Foundation", 2016, Graham Foundation, Chicago. Photos by: RCH | EKH.Images: courtesy of the Arab Image Foundation, Beirut. Photographs by Imad Najm and Christopher Baaklini. ​ Pier foundation is a cylindrical structural member that transfers heavy load from the superstructure to the soil by end bearing. Unlike piles, it can only transfer load by bearing and by not skin friction. This meticulous process requires its own set of guidelines of course, which were effectively developed during a testing period ahead of the digitisation phase while the albums were still being catalogued by the archivists in the preservation lab. Always a work in progress, those guidelines are constantly fine-tuned and updated. We often encounter things that were not anticipated, and we must respond to the requirements of each object to ensure its integrity but also obtain best results. This entails adjusting the lighting setup and imaging equipment, but also the use of special tools for handling. As we know that there are different types of soil, and the bearing capacity of the soil is different for each type of soil. Depending on the soil profile, size, and load of the structure, engineers chose different kinds of foundations. Types of Foundation