Jeroen Robert Kramer – Une Femme

The exhibition Une Femme is Jeroen Robert Kramer’s (1967, Amsterdam), a Dutch photographer who lives in Beiroet, Lebanon. It is a poetical photographic narrative based on the life of Monsieur Khiar, an old Lebanese man with whom the photographer in the story maintains a remarkable friendship. Kramer wants to photograph Monsieur Khiar, to go along with him on his strolls through Beiroet and his musings about the world, so as to transform his own memories of war and violence into art. When Monsieur Khiar makes clear that he prefers not to be photographed, Kramer’s fascination turns into obsession.

The story that is at the heart of the exhibition gradually makes clear that the civil war in Beiroet is ‘the elephant in the room’. That war severely traumatized both protagonists. That’s Jeroen Kramer’s personal reality too as he photographed all wars for ten years. With his poetical photographs he recalls what was erased by many years of war, and shows that which remains: the strolls through the city, getting drunk together and the affection for cats.