Discordia

A book and exhibition by Moises Saman

A WARM Partner Project

“‘Discordia’ documents my personal journey as a witness to the Arab Spring. This body of work takes the viewer on a four-year journey through Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria as these states drift from revolutionary throes to violent fallouts. This project chronicles the indelible transformation of the region in this momentous period in Arab history.” – Moises Saman.

Magnum Photos: Portfolio – Moises Saman

‘Discordia’ is a long-form photographic project by Moises Saman, developed between 2011 and 2014 during the Arab Spring. The work reflects Saman’s nearly four years living and working across the Middle East as a photojournalist, documenting uprisings, protests, and their aftermath for international publications including The New York Times, TIME, and The New Yorker.

Rather than following a linear journalistic structure, Discordia presents extended photographic sequences without captions, allowing images to interact and accumulate meaning over time. The project combines close-up observations of public unrest with quieter, peripheral moments—gatherings, gestures, objects, and fragments of everyday life unfolding amid instability and violence.

A distinctive element of Discordia is the inclusion of photo collages created by artist and editor Daria Birang, constructed from Saman’s photographs. These collages isolate human figures and gestures, emphasizing repetition, physical expression, and the theatricality of protest, while removing them from their original spatial context.

The work was published as a book in 2016 and closes with short texts written by the photographer – brief vignettes capturing encounters and situations experienced during his time in the region. Together, the photographs and texts form a personal record of a period marked by hope, upheaval, and enduring uncertainty, and reflect on the blurred boundaries between observer and participant, victim and perpetrator.

Discordia was presented as an exhibition during WARM Festival 2015 in Sarajevo and later shown at the Bayeux Festival of War Correspondents. The exhibition was organised by the WARM Foundation in partnership with Magnum Photos, contributing to WARM’s ongoing focus on long-form documentary work that challenges conventional narratives of conflict.

Publication details:
Discordia
By Moises Saman
Edited by Daria Birang
Hardback, 240 × 320 mm
126 photographs, 3 collages
Self-published, 2016