By Ayman Trawi (Photographer) The book “Beirut’s Memory” by Ayman Trawi, the Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri’s personal photographer, envisions the sharp contrast created after the reconstruction of downtown Beirut. A gallery of photos portrays the war ruins of buildings in the heart of the city and the renovated versions of the same structures leaving the viewer with great awe and a sigh of contemplation of what has been and what has become. The book is a record of the detailed reconstruction projects undertaken after the end of the Lebanese civil war. It reveals the amazing efforts made to change a practically demolished area into first-class investment locations that attract the world’s most renowned corporations, restaurant chains, banks, and institutions. The photos in the book clearly and genuinely capture the Lebanese culture as it pictures the ruined mosques and churches standing side by side and their lively renovated structures reflecting the authentic Lebanese cultural makeup. As the public set foot again in Beirut downtown area, they could not but shed some tears when they recalled the days when they used to hide among those walls from bombs. However, they are now enjoying a peaceful walk between those awesome and promising structures, and looking at the photo exhibit organized concurrently with the publication of Trawi’s book in the downtown area, showing what used to be not so long ago.