Mohamad Abdouni has always been very passionate about photography and magazines, producing his first just after graduating college in 2012. Next to being a much in demand photographer in the fashion industry and videomaker, he is also the Editor-in-Chief of Cold Cuts – a Beirut-based photo journal and video platform exploring queer culture and the Middle East.

Abdouni’s projects have always been fuelled by a very powerful need: creating what he himself had been missing, be it platforms, or stories. Cold Cuts arose out of a feeling of frustration with the lack of documentation of Arab queer history. Dissatisfied with having to always refer back to Western documentation for reference or traces of queerness, Abdouni started collaborating with some of his peers within the community from different fields – writers, designers – to begin creating what he thought was missing.

The commitment of their collaborative work is to visualise the past of Arab queer culture, as well as the current state for future generations of Arab queers around the world. Abdouni feels that this intense, lifelong commitment, together with the novel feeling it sparked, and the aura of danger that comes from the exposure and dedication to such a project in the Arab world, is what initially attracted brands and platforms to his work.

Making the stories and the existence of his big Arab queer family heard and acknowledged is a big responsibility that Abdouni happily carries on his shoulders. It is also a reminder of the fear, or better yet the very conscious awareness of the potential risks his activity embodies, normally tucked away in the back of his mind so as not to interfere. But he feels times are changing, slowly but steadily, and achievements such as his show at the Institute de Culture d'lslam in Paris in 2019 represent a powerful step forward.

Next to such a strong feeling of engagement and personal involvement in a cause that touches the lives of so many, often invisible, individuals in Beirut and the Middle East, much can be said about his images. They come from a place of love, and their purpose goes under the names of beauty, honesty, and realness. Some of them draw their inspiration from the masters of Western Renaissance and Baroque paintings, while others feel extremely raw, and real – to the point of being too real. This work is about intimacy, and empowerment, and celebration. And family.

This text is an excerpt of an article written by Elisa Medde about Mohamad Abdouni's project Untitled, originally published in Foam Magazine 53, Adorned, in 2019.

Abdouni’s Cold Cuts publication, Treat me like your mother, was also featured in Foam Magazine 59, Histories, in 2021, with a text by Joy Stacey

MOHAMAD ABDOUNI is a photographer, filmmaker, curator, and Editor-in-Chief and creative director of COLD CUTS MAGAZINE. His work focuses on the untold stories of subcultures in Beirut and the rising queer culture of the city. Mohamad has exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum in New York and in festivals around Europe including the Leeds Queer Film Festival.

ELISA MEDDE is a photography editor, curator, and writer. Previously, Elisa was editor-in-chief of Foam Magazine, Amsterdam.