This publication is produced in occasion of the Syrian artist Hrair Sarkissian's winning the Abraaj Group Art Prize 2013. An exhibition, with works by other finalists, took place at Art Dubai 2013, with Murtaza Vali being the curator.

'Background marks the eclipse of a tradition of studio portraiture integral to the twentieth century history and development of photography in the Middle East by documenting one of its central artefacts: the studio backdrop. Hrair Sarkissian photographed hundreds of examples he found in studios across six Middle Eastern cities - Alexandria, Amman, Beirut, Byblos, Cairo and Istanbul - finally selecting one from and for each one. Large-scale, backlit and hung unframed, like the backdrops themselves, these photographs both monumentalise and eulogise their subject. Without the distraction of a sitter in the foreground, our focus shifts to the backdrop itself, to the tools and spaces historically used for studio portraiture. But the spaces are empty and the backdrops appear disused, like ruins or relics of a tradition that has finally run its course, the absent sitter introducing a melancholy that radiates from the emptiness.' - from back cover.

Includes biographies of the artist and contributors.