Rituals of Absence: The Sacred and the Missing
Words by NOUR DAHER
In religious and cultural iconography, framed images of saints and revered figures serve as sites of remembrance, devotion, and intercession. In Dalia Khamissy’s work documenting the families of those missing from the Lebanese Civil War, a similar visual language emerges: portraits of the disappeared are carefully placed within homes, adorned with rosaries, candles, and symbols of faith. These acts of framing transform personal grief into a sacred ritual, elevating the missing to a space between presence and absence, memory and legacy.
Khamissy’s long-term project, The Missing of Lebanon, explores the lingering trauma of enforced disappearance, capturing the quiet resilience of families who have spent decades searching for answers. Through her photographs, she reveals the intimate ways in which memory is preserved—images of the missing are not only displayed but integrated into daily life, surrounded by personal artifacts and religious symbols. These altars of remembrance become visual testimonies to unresolved grief, where faith and hope remain interwoven with loss.
By placing images of saints alongside these portraits, we highlight a striking parallel: both figures exist in a liminal space, suspended between earth and eternity, the remembered and the unknown. In this interplay of iconography, faith, and loss, Khamissy’s work speaks to a collective mourning that transcends personal grief—offering an enduring testament to those who remain unseen yet unforgettable.
