Beirut, 29 August 2018 - Byblos Bank has announced the names of the ten finalists of the 2018 Byblos Bank Award for Photography, the seventh edition of one of Lebanon’s most sought-after artistic photography prizes.

Adonis Aoun, Christina Assi, Laeticia El Hakim, Lamis Hakim, Najib Hilal, Rhea Hleihel, Betty Ketchedjian, Hadi Moussaly, Melanie Mrad, and Loukman Nasreddine were selected following careful consideration by the expert team at BEIRUT ART FAIR and Mr. Tristan Lund, the president of this year’s Byblos Bank Award jury. They will exhibit their work at the fair between 20 and 23 September 2018. One of them will be announced winner of the 2018 Byblos Bank Award for Photography on Sunday, 23 September 2018 at 5:30 PM. 

The laureate will be chosen by a world-renowned jury of photography professionals whose members include: Tristan Lund (President), Art consultant specializing in Photography and Discovery section curator at Photo London; Aurélie Pétrel (Mentor), Professor and Head of the Photography Pool at the Geneva School of Art and Design (HEAD), and Founding member of A Broken Arm and Echo research laboratories; Nathalie Ackawi, Partner and co-director at Beirut Art Residency, and Co-founder at CUB Gallery; Elisabeth Couturier, Art critic, Curator, and Journalist, and author of L’Art Contemporain, a best-selling book about contemporary art; Antoine Haddad, Owner of ARTLAB gallery. 

The Byblos Bank Award for Photography is an efficient platform launched in 2012 to help place emerging Lebanese photographers on the right track for a successful career in artistic photography. Throughout its seven editions, more than 600 photographers submitted nearly 4,000 artistic photographs to the competition; seven different juries composed of international experts selected 75 finalists, who exhibited their work at the BEIRUT ART FAIR; six winners received extensive mentoring programs ahead of their first solo exhibitions, hosted and organized by Byblos Bank; a seventh winner will receive the same reward in 2018.  

To know more about the Byblos Bank Award for Photography, follow the Purple Lens by Byblos Bank pages on both Facebook and Instagram.