د . مروان مسلماني مصور في خدمة الاثار والسياحة .. مجلة فن التصوير اللبنانية _ ع٢٢

Dr . Marwan Maslamani is a photographer at the Antiquities and Tourism Service

Marwan Maslamani is a leading Arab photographer with a long history of photographic work.
In our meeting with him, we learn about all his memories of the past of photography and what he sees on the horizon about the future, based on his experience in this field.

Marwan Maslamani is one of the pioneers of the photographic image, the president of the Syrian Photographers Syndicate, and the president of the Photography Art Club.
The craft of this artist is more confirmed in his studies and archaeological pictures, which he pours into unique paintings and exquisite cadres that only a skilled artist is capable of.
Painting for him is like the pen for the writer and like the string for the musician. The artist Marwan Maslamani is manifested by highlighting the gray gradations between white and black, where we see poetry and transparency through equal and accurate lines and through consistent decoration and charming elegance.
Marwan Maslamani, born in Damascus in 1935, worked as head of the archaeological scientific photography department at the General Directorate of Antiquities and the Museum. About his beginnings, he says:
- My beginning in photography was modest as a whole beginning, but my aspirations were great towards the future, as my eye was looking towards all beauty and everything unusual. From here, my works were consecutive in quality and quality. The shepherd, on his way back to the corral, along a road crowned with trees. So it was the first shot, which is the real beginning of my artistic work. Days and years follow, and it happens that I visit Paris when I am a high school student, where the real experience was in a city full of subjects and photographs, from which I returned with my first artwork to display in the National Museum in Damascus under the title «My Views of Paris, and it was This exhibition is something new for the audience of Damascus, who are not familiar with such work. That was in 1956, when it was well received and accepted.

After I became part of the Department of Antiquities and Museums, I refined my hobbies and my work began to multiply
As well as exhibitions, and because photography is achieved by the naked eye before the lens achieves it, then film after photography is a hobby and entertainment, but rather it has become a hard work and a science that the artist achieves with perseverance, diligence and advanced science until he reaches a result that serves society and humanity.
Regarding the difference between coloured, white and black, according to his opinion, Dr. Marwan Maslamani says:
Photography is originally black and white, and international forums and exhibitions still demand that
As a weighted work on the colorist, the real artist is the one who proves to the beholder the greatness of the painting and the accuracy of its contrast and the gradations of black and white colors through a cadre and angle of vision expressing its existence.

On the other hand, he continues:
- Each type of photography has its specific times. Daytime photography takes place at its most beautiful times during the moderate and cold seasons, especially in winter, as it gives the photographer the right range for his light ideas that he would like to put its spectrum on sensitive paper.

What do you think of the level of photography in this era, locally and globally?
Photography has become a common art in Europe and America for decades. Various exhibitions are held throughout the year. What we see of volumes and magazines discussing the art of photography is the best evidence of the level that this international art has reached.
As for the Arab countries, its news came late, and in the last five years we witnessed a rapid development in the concept of light art.
In Syria, for example, light leaps occurred varying in time, and most of them were individual works for more than twenty years, which were manifested at the hands of Dr. Sabah Qabbani and artist Robert Melki. And Professor Wajih Al-Samman, Dr. Amin Al-Sharif, the artist Khalil Machaca, Marwan Musalman, and Professor Vanz Al-Salq.
And Dr. Maslamani continues by saying - Currently, the pioneers of photogrammetry in Syria are few, and the names he mentioned are nothing but foundational names that developed photography in Syria, Dr. Qutaiba Al-Shihabi, Professor Hosni Al-Hariri, Professor Shafiq Al-Imam, Professor Khaled Moaz, Professor George Ashi, Professor Hisham Sharbatji, Professor Abdul Karim Al-Ansari, Professor Fahi Shahinian, and Professor Fawaz Al-Jaber, Professor George Francis, and Professor Boutros Khazen, and these have their clear fingerprints on the page of light art in Syria.
- Which of the artists do you like outside Syria?
My admiration for artists is due to the fact that they are advanced artists, regardless of their nationalities, and I like artists
Photojournalists Joseph Karsh.
What are your best photos?
- The pictures I took, I can count them, they are painting
Distributed between hobby artwork and archaeological official work. As for the most beautiful shot, this is what I can appreciate because I love all my paintings as they come from a conscious and careful study. Close shots I use to depict faces, as they show human emotions and feelings. As for distant shots, they serve the general archaeological and tourist work.

- About his exhibitions and prizes says Maslamani
- My personal exhibitions for thirty years, about 45 exhibitions distributed among artistic and archaeological works. As for the joint exhibitions, the most important of them are with the Photography Club when it was established under the title “The Five Photo Exhibition.. In terms of awards, I won the United Nations Prize for the painting Save the Children in the World, as it became a poster Then the German Democratic Arts Medal for my touring exhibition under the title Five Thousand Years of Statue Art, Syria, the Arts Medal in 1959 from the Syrian Ministry of Culture, the first prize from another local festival, and finally the Syrian Medal of Merit. This is in addition to certificates of appreciation from the universities of Rome, Paris, and Copenhagen.

- What about your work in the Directorate of Antiquities and your role in the photography club?
My work in the field of the Directorate of Antiquities was the basis that enabled me to develop my artistic work, interested in the antiquities and valuables that Syria abounds with.
As for the photography club, it is recent, as it began to attract the experience of sensitive eyes. The door is open for every lover and aficionado of this great art to join this club, which we are still in the state of starting and preparing to find a permanent place to practice work and open training courses, and Mr. General Mustafa Tlass had an effective role in embracing this club since its inception.
And I hope that the photography club becomes one of the productive and important clubs.
Finally, Dr. Maslamani would like to say a word about the art of photography. .
Magazine, photography.
It was a big and astonishing surprise to me because I did not expect the publication of such a magazine of elegance, knowledge and a well-thought-out goal. It is not surprising that this magazine takes its true place among those interested in this light art due to its strong presence through its successive issues in the Arab world. I must thank its interest in the news of Arab light art and artists.

Farid Dhafour - Damascus