Crossing Point Residency Blog

Dalia Khamissy, who was Crossing Point photographer-in-residence for Visa Pour l’Image 2010, won the Audience Engagement Grant and will work closely with SOLIDE (Support of Lebanon in Detention and Exile) to educate and mobilize youth around the fate of people who went missing during the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war.

Mikko Takkunen and Dalia Khamissy

Today was the last professional day in Perpignan and my first meeting was at 12.00 that day… So I had plenty of time to get ready and go meet Yasmina at Café Ubu for a tea, before I head to Hotel Palms. I wanted was to take it easy and try not to collapse... While heading to the café, I heard voices as if in a demonstration. I could feel the crowd was just around the corner… I could not really hear what they were protesting against but it definitely sounded as if they were shouting “bil rouh, bil damm, nafdika ya…” (Arabic for: With soul, With blood, We will support you Oh …) It was a very strange feeling and I felt I was in Lebanon in one of those demonstrations! The reality was they were demonstrating against Racism and Xenophobia !

Before the 12.00 meeting I checked my emails and there were two emails I was waiting for: one from the National Geographic’s Gina Martin who was happy to see me at 11.30 and another from OSI Pam Chen… Sadly I was a bit late in replying to Gina’s email and she planned other meetings… The reality is that upon our arrival to the apartment we faced a big problem with the internet and therefore we found ourselves confused and lost not connected 24 hours a day. So due to internet problems, I lost my chance of meeting the National Geographic!!! 
The editor of 12.00 was still at a presentation and the meeting was cancelled… 2 hours later she was at Hotel Palms surrounded by photographers and I just had no energy to go and show my work anymore or even queue for that… I must admit it was not something I was comfortable in doing since the beginning and I just let go of it.

A bit disappointed and very tired, I went to my 15.00 meeting at Palais des Congrès. My energy was already reaching the bottom and I am sure I was not the only one feeling that way. My meeting was with ANI’s Aline Manoukian, on the second floor, where all the agencies had already deserted their stands. It was a very emotional meeting; Aline being Lebanese she understood all my projects and felt related to them, it was just too overwhelming for a last meeting and her feedback was more than appreciated.

My last meeting with Host gallery at Hotel Palms at 17.00 was the last one I could handle to be honest. I even think the editors themselves were fed up of looking at pictures for the week.

Poulomi Basu, Yasmina Reggad and Olivier C. Laurent

An apéro was organized at the apartment of Camille Plante, Isabelle Lesser, Anne Holmes, Yasmina Reggad etc. From their terrace we could hear the last night projection. It was really the end of the festival and people were preparing for the big final party at Couvent des Minimes that night.

That night, it felt a bit strange to dance with the editors I had met that week, but it surely felt great to dance with all the flat mates and other photographers I got to know at Café la Poste. The last drop of energy kept me going all through the night and well it was a great end for an exhausting yet extremely interesting photography festival.

Walking Zombies

This is exactly what everybody looked like on Sunday morning, surrounded by suitcases at Café la Poste… I decided it was time to remove the tag from my wrist and so I did.

After the breakfast and the teas and water we all kept ordering, along with some other photographers, I went to check the exhibitions I never had the time to see during the professional week.

So back to the Couvent des Minimes and Église des Dominicains for a quick glimpse at the photographs exhibited there. I was leaving Perpignan by car with a friend to Barcelona, later that afternoon and then to Almeria for my exhibition at the Centro Andaluz de la Forografia, which was on Tuesday… I was ready to leave Perpignan now… Most photographers and editors had already left and the Café de la Poste looked kind of deserted compared to what it used to be. 
For few hours after removing it, I kept feeling the tag on my wrist on where it used to be for the past 5 days or 6. A strange feeling indeed that I felt all during the day and as we were driving out of Perpignan.

I am already missing my flatmates, Yasmina, the photographers I met and even the gathering at Café la Poste… But it feels as if it was ages ago that this happened and not last week. Maybe this is what happens when our brains become numb, from the entire running around, lack of sleeping etc.

Au revoir Perpignan!

Dalia Khamissy