Mazen Jannoun (Ashrafieh, Beirut, Lebanon) is a photographer and photo-editor.
His practice intertwines anthropology and social documentary.
He is based in Italy since 2011.
Jannoun studied photography and filming at the Russian Cultural Institute in Verdun, Beirut.
In the mid 1990s he worked on social photography projects for newspapers and magazines that depicted the post-war social reviving and the reconstruction process of the heavily destroyed Lebanese capital Beirut, collaborating mostly with the committed architects and the urban development company Solidere.
In 2006, Jannoun began investigating the social and ecological condition of the Mediterranean coastal regions in Lebanon and meeting the communities inhabiting them. He spent four years photographing places he never seen due to the regional divisions and the restrictions of movement they posed during the Lebanese civil war while growing up.
His project Watercolour, la côte libanaise, was described as a complete testimony of the relation between the people and the coast of Lebanon out of necessity, greed as well as activism and preservation, showing hope, despair and a glimpse of optimism. The project was published in a book by Tamyras Éditions and later exhibited in Festival PhotoMed 2013 curated by Jean-Luc Monterosso in Sanary sur-Mer, Institut Français au Liban and was granted the Premio Internazionale Scanno dei Fotografi, Italy. Watercolour is a project in progress to explore and portray the socio-ecological condition of the entire Mediterranean coast in North African, Middle-Eastern and European countries.
In 2022-2023 he curated for the European Commission two major projects : The "RightHereRightNow" campaign for Justice and Consumers, and "Uncommon?" Campaign, focused on gender stereotypes and fundamental rights.
In 2015 Mazen Jannoun was invited by photographer and reporter Stefano Schirato with the patronage of Pomilio Blumm Agency, to work on the idea of “belonging” for the Pomilio Blumm Future Frames Prize. He began meeting expats and immigrants living in Italy and created the project 1x1 (one by one), which is a series of life-size prints that invites to imagine participants most cherished memories by letting them construct their origin inside a one square meter space marked by measuring bands inside their living spaces. The project was nominated for the Pomilio Blumm Prize in Brussels, and was exhibited in Festival Phot’Aix 2019 in Aix-en-Provence, France. 1x1 is a project in progress to explore the origin of immigrants in other European countries.
In addition to his activity as documentarist (among others for Reuters and AFP - Agence France Press), Jannoun worked as interior design, fine jewelry and architectural and urban landscape photographer.
Within the framework of his long-term collaboration with visual artists, theaters, directors and choreographers, he portrayed Chiara Guidi from Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, Stefano Cenci Company, Arterie Theatre, Spazio Matta, Marinella Senatore, Arcangelo Sassolino, Giorgio Rossi, Masrah Al Madina theatre in Beirut among others.
As didactic teacher He gives lecturers on Photographic Archives and Visual Storytelling.
His work has been featured in Society, Chronique, Magazine Hebdo, Annahar, Volvo Magazine, L’Orient Le Jour, Vogue Gioiello, Emirates Woman, Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, Grazia, Mojeh, Vogue Arabia, Al Liwaa, Al Mostaqbal.
Jannoun currently collaborates with artists, museums and private galleries for art documentation and works on his ongoing projects.