The featured photographs introduced in this post are a revelation for me, as I had no idea that public baths still existed at all in Cairo, the city of my birth. It appears that during the 12th century, the Egyptian baths were the most beautiful of the East, the most convenient and best laid out. Today, excluded from the government's restoration plans , the hammams of Cairo are decaying.
Pascal Meunier is a documentary photographer based in Paris, whose latest photographic works focus on Arab-Muslim culture. A culture which endlessly talked of and criticized these days, but seldom understood nor appreciated.
For the past eight years, Pascal has reported on cultural traditions from Mauritania to Malaysia, passing through Iran, Libya, Yemen and Egypt on the way. The objective of his photography is to capture the cultural heritage and traditions that are swiftly vanishing. He also shows a Muslim world in change, overtaken by modernity, but increasingly anxious to preserve its values. He photographs with a Leica MP.
I found his images of the Cairene public baths to be brooding, saturated and atmospheric. As I said, a revelation and certainly a potential personal project when I next visit.
Pascal Meunier's Les Derniers Bains Du Caire
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