Fouad Elkoury


Fouad Elkoury is a Lebanese photographer and filmmaker. He is known internationally for his photographs of war in Lebanon.

Life and work

ElKoury was born in Paris, the son of Lebanese architect Pierre el-Khoury. He studied architecture in London before switching to photography.
He began photographing daily life during the Lebanese Civil War. He documented the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and found himself on the Atlantis, the ship aboard of which Yasser Arafat had been evacuated, producing an unexpected nautical photo essay.
In 1989, ElKoury joined Rapho agency and spent one year in Egypt. In 1991, he was part of a collective photographic project in charge of capturing an ultimate image of Beirut city center's ruins, with Robert Frank, Raymond Depardon, René Burri, Josef Koudelka and Gabriele Basilico.
He was one of the co founders of the Arab Image Foundation a non-profit organization whose mission is to collect, preserve and study photographs from the Middle East, North Africa and the Arab diaspora.
In 2002, ElKoury was commissioned to produce a body of work to be exhibited at the Maison européenne de la photographie as Sombres.
Elkoury represented Lebanon in the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007 with the series "On War and Love", 2006.
In 2011, he presented Be…longing, a comprehensive solo exhibition at the Beirut Art Center. Elkoury participated in Roundtable: The 9th Gwangju Biennale, which took place September 7November 11, 2012 in Gwangju, Korea.

Filmography