WINTER/SPRING 2022
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PHOTOS FOR THE PEOPLE: How widening the lens landed this IC alumni on Forbes 30 Under 30. 2020 was a rather indescribable year. In fact, Oxford Dictionary’s famous “word of the year,” was left blank, as, “it became apparent that 2020 was not a year that could neatly be accommodated into one single word.” Where words failed however, pictures and images filled the gaps. As the old adage goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Photos allowed us a privileged window into the lives of others and connected us through shared experiences of isolation, devastation, alongside hope and togetherness. “There was a lot of fear and isolation at the beginning of 2020, but then people came together to protest the injustices that were revealed during the pandemic.” Nour Chamoun ’09 reflects. Her upcoming book, “The Year Time Stopped: The Global Pandemic in Photos,” is a collection of images and stories from the past two years, and is being published with Harper Collins in June 2022. She calls it “a testament to the human spirit, and how it rises above everything that works to bring it down.” Chamoun was well positioned to document, share, and elevate what could not be articulated Nour Chamoun with words, throughout these tumultuous two years. The book is just the tip of the iceberg. For the past five years, her digital photography marketplace and creator hub, Scopio, has tapped into artistic communities across the globe with a goal of creating the world’s largest and most accessible collection of authentic and diverse images that photographers everywhere can contribute to, and any individual, company, or organization can access. Their mission is to connect the world through visual storytelling, which they have been doing quietly and quite successfully for some time. Their digital library currently contains 700,000 + images from 14,000+ creators across 160 countries.
The company’s reach, innovative technology, and commitment to authenticity and diversity earned Nour a coveted spot on the esteemed 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30 Media list. The panel of judges, which included media heavy hitters like CNN host Don Lemon and Vox cofounder Melissa Bell, selected an elite 30 who have found success through serving audiences and telling stories that are often overlooked by traditional institutions, and who leverage technology to solve media’s biggest challenges. Nour undoubtedly fit the bill. The child of two documentary filmmakers who dedicated their lives to filming stories of marginalized communities during Lebanon’s Civil War, Nour has always been keenly aware of the importance of visual storytelling and the power of the arts to expose and highlight people and places often overlooked and misrepresented in mainstream media. Nour pursued her artistic side at IC, where her favorite course was visual arts class, in which she focused on painting. Her love of visual arts drew her to LAU’s graphic design program where she completed her undergraduate degree before moving to New York to pursue a master’s in Design Technology from Parsons School of Design. “I wanted to do something at the intersection of art, design and technology, as well as something that has social impact. I kept thinking, how am I able to combine design and technology and affect some sort of social change?” Nour relays. This question guided Nour through her studies and later pursuits. As part of her masters, she created a database for Arabic fonts, called Tarkeeb. The typewriter and the computer were originally developed for Latin fonts and English scripts, and Nour saw a huge gap in the number of
