Through the lens of war: Revisiting Lebanon’s civil conflict

Nearly 50 years ago, one of the most violent conflicts in the Middle East erupted in a country once described as the “Switzerland of the Middle East.” 

Lebanon’s civil war, which began in 1975, would last 15 years, claiming more than 150,000 lives, displacing around 800,000 people, and leaving deep scars on a society grappling with fractured identities, beliefs, and memories.

Decades later, renowned Lebanese photographer Patrick Baz revisits some of his most iconic images from the conflict. Published by Dazed, the photographs offer a stark and intimate return to a war that reshaped Lebanon and its people.

Baz’s work captures more than destruction. His images freeze moments of fear, resilience, and uneasy normalcy amid chaos: civilians navigating ruined streets, militiamen caught between youth and violence, and a city split by invisible yet deadly lines. 

Shot at great personal risk, the photographs reflect the confusion of a generation growing up with war as a daily backdrop.

Looking back today, Baz describes his images not just as documents of violence, but as fragments of collective memory. They raise difficult questions about identity, belonging, and how a society remembers a conflict that officially ended in 1990 but whose echoes remain present.

This visual dive into Lebanon’s civil war is both a historical testimony and a reminder of photography’s power to preserve what time and politics often try to erase.