Jim Lewis On Everyday Life of Others
Jim Lewis On the Everyday Life of Others There was a building in downtown Beirut known as the Yellow House, a neo-Ottoman pile made of ochre limestone. During the Civil War it stood on the city’s infamous Green Line, which divided the Muslim-controlled western sector from the Christian-controlled east. Because of its location, it was a popular hiding place for snipers; because of the snipers, it was a popular target for shells. By the time the war ended, in 1990, the place was a wreck; bombed out, pockmarked, and slated for demolition until a coalition of civic forces came together to reopen it as a war museum called Beit Beirut. As they were cleaning it out, they discovered a certain treasure, a time capsule, consisting of tens of thousands of celluloid negatives depicting life before the war, the archive of a photography studio that had once been housed there.