Notebook volume 72: Missing Lebanese Wars
Color photographs, 32x25 cm, 1989
Attributed to: Dr Fadl Khoury 

It is a little known fact that the major historians of the Lebanese wars where avid gamblers. It is said that they met every Sunday at the race track.  Marxists and Islamists bet on races one through seven; Maronite nationalists and socialist on races eight through fifteen.

Race after race, the historians stood behind the track photographer, whose job was to image the winning horse as it crossed the finish line, to record the photo-finish.  It is also said that they convinced (some say bribed) the photographer to snap only one picture as the winning horse arrived. Each historian wagered on precisely when – how many fractions of a second before or after the horse crossed the finish line - the photographer would expose his frame.