Chronicles of the Ongoing
Ségolène Ragu (@segoleneragu) is a French-Lebanese photographer based in Beirut. Her work explores the memory and history of places, as well as the impact of economic crisis and war on daily life and mental health in Lebanon.
Her current project, Chronicles of the Ongoing, is a search for closeness in times of war, while getting a sense of the collective struggle. These intimate testimonies and moving images are part of Azad Archives upcoming Spring/Summer 2026 issue, Archive of Connection.
"During the escalation of the Israeli aggression on Lebanon in the fall of 2024, I was in a freeze mode, feeling both alert and paralysed at the same time. It's only after the ceasefire on November 27 that I felt more able to document the war's impact on people's lives. I asked my friends about their experience of the war, remembering key moments such as the beginning of the war in October 2023, the rising tensions culminating in the summer and the anticipation of an Israeli ground invasion, the pager attacks in September 2024, followed by the massive Israeli bombing campaign and the killing of Hassan Nasrallah in a series of airstrikes, and the daily bombings that followed until the ceasefire, which few believed in at the time, rightfully so. During the escalation, dates and maps helped me process the overwhelming scale of the war. I recalled the events chronologically with my friends, asking them where they were, how they felt and reacted during the war, and how they are feeling now with the ongoing assaults despite the ceasefire.
As I write, and after violating the ceasefire with Lebanon more than 15,000 times since November 2024, Israel is waging another war on Lebanon. This war seems similar yet different to the one of 2024. It’s the same playbook, but even more violent. Israel has forcibly displaced over one million people and has issued evacuation orders for the southern suburbs of Beirut and the whole South of Lebanon, up until the Zahrani river. It’s now threatening a massive ground invasion of the South of Lebanon. People, on the other hand, reacted and organised very quickly to support each other and the displaced communities, as they already did in 2024." - Ségolène Ragu
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