George Azar

George Azar (born February 3, 1959) is a Lebanese-American photojournalist and documentary filmmaker. His photographs have appeared on the front pages of The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, The Economist, Saudi Aramco World and other leading publications. Since 2006 he and Mariam Shahin, have produced over 50 films for the international satellite news network, Al Jazeera. Azar has also produced several documentaries for the internet news channel Vice News, including "Crime and Punishment in Gaza", "Renegade Jewish Settlers" and 'The Islamic State vs Lebanon". Azar has covered the Middle East and Arab/Islamic culture since 1981 and is the subject of the CBS Emmy Award-winning news feature, Beirut Photographer. He was also profiled in the BBC's Firing Line. He was nominated for the 2007 Rory Peck Award for his film Gaza Fixer. His and fellow filmmaker Tom Evans' film Two Schools in Nablus also received great acclaim, winning the Japan Prize in Education in 2008, and the British Royal Television Society Education Award in 2009. In addition, Azar is the author and photographer of the critically acclaimed book Palestine: A Photographic Journey, and the photographer of Palestine: A Guide, written by Mariam Shahin.

In addition to his work as a photojournalist and filmmaker, Azar is a historian and curator. His writing, photography and photo curation is on permanent display on the first three floors of San Francisco's historic U.S. Customhouse, and New York's International Center of Photography hosted Azar's 2002 curation of Bill Biggart's "Twin Towers", which marked the one-year anniversary of the tragedy. Azar commands unique insight into both the Arab world and the western perceptions and misperceptions of it, and has lectured on the subject at major universities including the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Chicago, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Pepperdine and Harvard. Azar is currently a Photojournalist in Residence and a full-time instructor in Journalism and Digital Media at the American University of Beirut since Fall 2018–19.

Early life Azar was born in Philadelphia on February 3, 1959, the middle child of George Azar Jr. and Gladys Saddic, both the children of Lebanese immigrants. He has three siblings, an older sister, Madelynn, and two younger brothers, Michael and Habib. When he was eight years old, the family relocated to San Diego, California, where he spent the remainder of his childhood.

Between 1977 and 1981, Azar attended the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of California, Berkeley, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in political science, history. He graduated magna cum laude.

Having grown up in a Lebanese American household, and visiting Lebanon several times throughout his youth, Azar was always extremely interested in the Middle East. In the introduction to his book, Palestine: A Photographic Journey, Azar writes:

"My grandfather, 'Jiddu' Haleem, often spoke of a place where by custom, a hungry traveler could pick fruit from orchards, where snowy mountaintops overlooked the Mediterranean, and where villages with red-tiled roofs nestled in forests of cedar and pine. He called that country biladi, my homeland...the Arab world came alive for me through those stories."

Then in July 1981, the Israeli Air Force bombed a neighborhood in Beirut called Fakhani, sending stacks of 700 pound bombs slamming into densely packed apartment buildings. Some 400 civilians were killed by the explosions or crushed by the weight of the fallen buildings. Azar read about it in a newspaper, clipped the short article, and taped it onto the refrigerator door so his friends could see it. Throughout the summer he would look at this article and become overwhelmed. This Israeli bombing campaign in West Beirut was part of the early stages of what would eventually transform into the 1982 Lebanon War. Azar writes, "I could imagine the press coverage that would have followed if 400 Jewish civilians been killed in a Palestinian attack. Yet, in 1981, the killing of 400 Arab civilians by Israel hardly caused a ripple in the American public mind."

Production

Documentaries for Al Jazeera

2012 Beirut Photographer (48 min documentary) Fall Out In The Mediterranean (44 min documentary)

2011 (25 min documentary)

2010 (47 min documentary)

2009 (22 min documentary) (22 min documentary) (22 min documentary) (22 min documentary)

2008 (22 min documentary) (22 min documentary) Lost Manuscripts of Timbuktu (22 min documentary) Abduallah Goes to Essekane (22 min documentary) On War with Josh Rushing (22 min documentary)

2007 Crossroads Europe: Islam in Berlin (22 min documentary) Iraq: The Way Out? (22 min film) Hostages of Gaza (22 min documentary) Seen But Not Heard (6 min documentary) Samaritan Brides (6 min documentary) The Get (6 min documentary) (44 min documentary) Cheating to Live (22 min documentary) Hope on Hold (3 x 22 min documentary series) Two Schools in Nablus (3 x 22 min documentary series made with filmmaker Tom Evans) - Winner of 2008 Japan Prize in Education & 2009 Royal Television Society Education Award

2006 In Exile Next Door (22 min documentary) No One Left Behind (22 min documentary) Hollywood: Casting the Enemy (22 min documentary) Bargaining Chips (22 min documentary) (22 min documentary) - Winner of 2007 Rory Peck Award

Published photographs

2000s 2007 - Gaza Strip & West Bank, New York Times, Boston Globe 2006 - Gaza Strip & West Bank, New York Times, Boston Globe 2005 - Palestinian Presidential Elections, New York Times 2005 - Palestine: A Guide, Interlink books 2004 - ‘This Is Palestine’, Educational CD-Rom, United Nations Development Programme 2004 - Death of Arafat, The Guardian 2003 - Palestine Photographic Survey, United Nations Development Programme 2002 - World Trade Center Martyr Bill Biggart, International Center for Photography

1990s 1998-2001 - World Featherweight Boxing Champion, Prince Naseem 1997 - Dick Dale, King of the Surf Guitar, Aramco World Magazine 1996 - Nader Khalili's Earth Architecture, Fine Homebuilding 1995 - Syrian Archeology, Aramco World Magazine 1994 - Hardwood Craftsman Sam Maloof, Aramco World Magazine 1994 - Naturalist Gary Paul Nabhan, Aramco World Magazine 1993 - Beirut, Up From the Ashes, Aramco World Magazine 1993 - Lebanese Archeology, Aramco World Magazine 1992 - Master Dancer Elie Chaib, Aramco World Magazine 1992 - Hanan Ashrawi & The Washington Peace Talks, Mother Ines 1992 - Iraq After Desert Storm, San Francisco Bay Guardian 1991 - Iraq War, San Jose Mercury News

1980s 1989 - The Syrian Siege of Mt. Lebanon, Philadelphia Inquirer 1988 - The Palestinian Uprising, University of California Press 1987 - The Grateful Dead, Philadelphia Inquirer 1987 - Philadelphia Prizefighters, Philadelphia Magazine 1985 - The Iran-Iraq War, Battle of Basra, U.S. News & World Report 1985 - East Beirut & Mt. Lebanon, Philadelphia Inquirer 1984 - Insurrection in West Beirut, Newsweek 1984 - A Sniper's Story, Beirut, Philadelphia Inquirer 1983 - Bombing of the U.S. Marine Compound Beirut, UPI 1983 - War of the Camps, Northern Lebanon, Newsweek 1982 - The Israeli Invasion of Lebanon, Newsweek 1981 - The Lebanese Civil War, AP

Books Azar, George, Palestine, A Photographic Journey, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1991. Mariam Shahin & George Azar, Palestine, A Guide, Northampton, MA: Interlink Books, 2005. - finalist for the Independent Publisher Book Award 2006, received an Honorable Mention for ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Awards, and was The Independents "Pick of the Picture Books Award".