Beirut Image Festival was launched in 2019 as an initiative by Zakira – the Image Festival Association in partnership with Dar al-Mussawir and The Arab Union of Photographers. Over the period of 5 weeks, Festival exhibited in 25 locations in indoor and outdoor exhibitions in Beirut and the other Lebanese regions (Tripoli, Saida, Sour, Baalbeck and Hammana). 

Outdoor exhibitions were setup in open spaces in the Beirut Seaside (Ain Mraiseh), the Roman Baths and Beirut Souks. In its first cycle, the festival received photographic submissions from 678 photographers from 36 nationalities and submitted 3884 photos. An artistic committee selected 600 photographs from 122 photographers from 25 nationalities.