Since 1999 Raad has made work addressing the recent history of Lebanon under the pseudonym The Atlas Group. My Neck is Thinner than a Hair: Engines assembles one hundred images, showing the aftermath of car bombs in Beirut during the Lebanese civil war between 1975 and 1991. The Atlas Group have stated that this work ‘examines the multiple dimensions of the wars and  investigates the public and private events, discourses, objects and experiences surrounding the 245 car bombs that were detonated during this period.’

The images which make up this work are photographs of car engines, which, after a car bomb has exploded, are often found intact at some distance from the site of the explosion. Arranged in a grid, the photographs convey the numbing repetition of violence in wartime. While the photographic images are authentic, their installation challenges ideas of historical veracity and the reliability of personal and collective memory.

Raad’s works include photography projects, video pieces and textual analysis. Concerned with the documentary function of photography, film and video – especially how they document physical and psychological violence - his aim for The Atlas Group project is ‘to research and document the contemporary history of Lebanon’. He is also a member of The Arab Image Foundation which was established in 1996 in Lebanon to research and promote photography in the Middle East and North Africa.

Walid Raad was born in Lebanon in 1967. He lives and works in New York.

The Atlas Group: http://www.theatlasgroup.org