Women behind the lens: ‘The next day she got a tattoo of broken glass’

‘Demi Kanaan was injured in the 2020 explosions. I photographed her on the eve of the anniversary. She chose this location and wrote: “We were mesmerised by the fragmented building. Each broken piece told a familiar story.”’ Photograph: Rania Matar

The year 2025 will mark the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the civil war from which Lebanon is still suffering.

In the past three years, conditions for Lebanese people have deteriorated fast. After years of brutal conflicts, precarious peace, corrupt governments, months of protests and the pandemic, the Beirut port explosion on 4 August 2020 plunged Lebanon into the abyss. That day, a detonation of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate killed at least 218 people and injured more than 7,000.