Title: "Oh God," she said, talking to a tree
Attributed date: 2004
Attributed to: Nahia Hassan
Production date: 2008

The following prints are attributed to Nahia Hassan who donated them to The Atlas Group in 2004. Until her dismissal in 1994, Hassan was a senior topographer in the Lebanese Army’s Directorate of Geographic Affairs. Her tasks included the investigation of all missile attacks on Lebanese soil. 

​In her time off, and as an amateur painter, Hassan painted hundreds of small watercolors of the plumes of smoke, debris and fire produced by the missiles she tracked. Moreover, and consistently over her 25-year career, she sent the paintings as thank-you-gifts to the officers and enlisted men and women who served with her. While some reprimanded her for her insensitivity, and others commended her for her formal mastery, few turned down Hassan’s painted gifts. 

​The following are 31 such turned-down thank-you-gifts. 

Title: I might die before I get a rifle
Attributed date: 1993
Attributed to: Hannah Mrad
Production date: 2008

In 1991, and after 14 years in the Lebanese Communist Party, Hannah Mrad was recruited into the Lebanese Army’s Ammunition and Explosives division. Months into his new assignment, he found himself unable to remember the names of the thousands of explosive devices he was meant to master. He began to photograph them, to enlarge them, hoping that his human-sized photographs would aid his memory. They didn’t and he was let go.