From the moment of its invention, photography assumed the role of providing evidence. It followed that the cultural context of the nineteenth-century set the parameters and established the function of the photographic archive as a repository of truth in modern civilizations and it is upon that foundation that contemporary artists seek to interrogate, complicate, and reconfigure these historical truths. Those most intensely engaged with the archival impulse include a group of Lebanese artists whose artistic careers emerged in the era of the Lebanese Wars. Drawing on Sandhya Shetty and Elizabeth Jane Bellamy’s theory of “postcolonial archives” as offering an authoritative voice for disenfranchised subjects, I will examine the work of Lebanese artist-scholars, such as Akram Zaatari, Walid Ra’ad and Lamia Joreige. Moreover, I will build on the work of Sarah Rogers, who in her convincing critique of the lacking historical context in the discourse of Beirut’s postwar generation points out that the “archival aesthetics” of this group link them to neo-conceptual art. However, extending beyond the contemporary trend towards conceptualism in the global market, this paper will draw historical context and contemporary theory on archives together to address the particularities of these artists’ engagement with archival strategies. Grounded in historical and current political and artistic realities, why are contemporary Lebanese artists turning to the format of the archive as the predominant mode for addressing their conditions and what makes the use of archives by this group of artists distinct from the widespread, popular fascination with archival practices within the contemporary sphere of art and discourse?