Frames of Absence & Presence, 2022-present

Drawing on the artist’s family album, this ongoing photographic research reconstructs images through fragmentation, layering, and abstraction. Reworked photographs become visual diaries in which memory is continually reshaped, moving between recognition and dissolution. Through these transformations, the work investigates the possibility of an aesthetic language of war, where personal histories intersect with the instability of photographic representation. The images bear witness to historical violence while remaining incomplete, offering fragments of experience that cannot fully contain the events they evoke. Still in development, the research examines how the photograph can function as both a trace of the past and a site where memory, absence, and the limits of representation remain in tension.

Works have been selected and exhibited at OFF Bratislava Contemporary Photography Festival, 2021 (MA Class)

Work used for OFF Bratislava branding, communication, and publishing.

Selected photographs were part of the FLU exhibition associated with WAWA (Women+ Artists Web Archive) and Apartment Project-Berlin, 2023.

All images are copyrighted © by Maria Kassab. The use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission from the artist is obtained.