Book Launch: Becoming Van Leo
Thursday 16 December 2021, 17:00 to 20:00
More than ten years in the making, a three-volume publication about the Egyptian-Armenian photographer Levon Boyadjian (1921-2002), better known as Van Leo, is finally here. Titled Becoming Van Leo, this publication is authored by Arab Image Foundation (AIF) member Karl Bassil, in collaboration with Negar Azimi, also an AIF member, and Angelo’s daughter and Van Leo's niece Katia Boyadjian.
Drawing on the Van Leo collection housed at the AIF, the Van-Leo collection at the American University in Cairo, and Katia Boyadjian’s archives – among other sources – this 600-page publication features more than three thousand images, in addition to essays and personal accounts from people who knew him.
The launch of Becoming Van Leo takes place on the esplanade of the Sursock Museum in Beirut with the presence of the publication's principal author, Karl Bassil.
Becoming Van Leo is published by the Arab Image Foundation (Beirut) and Archive Books (Berlin), in partnership with the Prince Claus Fund and Sharjah Art Foundation, and with the cooperation of the American University in Cairo. Designed by Mind the gap and printed by 53Dots (Lebanon).