I traveled to Lebanon in spring of 1992 with my friend and fellow student, Ove Holmqvist. Ove had a contact from back home in Finland who could obtain us visas through the back door. 

I had just completed an internship at the prestigious photo agency, Magnum, where I had the privilege of exploring their huge archives while filing returns. Seeing contact sheets, especially gave me the insight as to how a great photo comes about. Ove and I also went to see Don McCullin talk at the ICA in the weeks running up to our trip. We were inspired. 

We traveled via Prague. A fifty dollar note in our passport at Czech customs got us on the plane to Beirut without visas. We flew over night, I awoke as we descended  with a dawn view over the ruins of Beirut, and a sinking feeling in my gut with the realisation of what I was about to encounter.  

(1) Construction worker on the roof of the Meridian Hotel, downtown Beirut. 

2) While exploring the area in Beirut known as the green line (an unofficial border between east and west Beirut - green due to the overgrowing vegetation that entangled the ruined buildings), I discovered the little girl in the alley where debris and rubble lay at our feet. She kept a posture that seemed older than her years and gave me time to crouch down to make this picture. It was a quiet and moving moment that was very close to my lens. Seconds later, the Lebanese Army arrived and said I had to leave because the alley was dangerous. 

(3) Ove and I were drinking a coffee on Rue Hamra one morning in west Beirut, when the Lebanese Army pulled up in a jeep and asked us to come with them. “Mr Allister we do demolition today” We jumped in and drove to the Place de Martyre, where we met a canvas covered truck containing a load of red sticks of dynamite stacked in supermarket plastic carrier bags. We followed as the truck drove into a neighbouring street. The army started to transfer the load into a ruined building, while a loudhailer announced the deadline to evacuate. Many people were squatting in the building, they started to disperse but most took nothing with them other a television set (5). Ove and I were invited into the building opposite, where more people had makeshift homes (8) We poised for the imminent detonation on a first floor balcony, but a few minutes before I noticed people in the street running much further away and decided we should retreat. We jumped from the first floor and ran. They blew the building while we were still legging it up the street. I managed to spin around and fire off several frames at 8000th of a second on my Nikon F4. It was a wise decision to relocate. A plume of dust rapidly rolled towards Ove and I. We took shelter in the nearby Roman Catholic church (4) 

(6) Childrens sweet shop Shatila. (7) Downtown Beirut, the old colonial ruins inhabited by squatters. (9) Mechanics Garage Downtown Beirut. (10)Albanian construction worker, Meridian hotel. The construction site was also used as living quarters for the labourers. (11)Downtown Beirut on the green line.