Denis Dailleux | Egypt

Photo © Denis Dailleux - All Rights Reserved

Every now and then, I chance on photographic work which fills me with nostalgia, and viewing the monochromatic images of Cairenes and other Egyptians by Denis Dailleux brings me back memories of growing up in a leafy suburb of what was at that a cosmopolitan capital. Unimaginable now of course, but at that time it was more European than Arab...and secularism was the norm. 

And Denis says it well in an interview: "I left Cairo more than a year, but return to it on a regular basis. I still love this chaotic city that spellbinds me, and I'm extremely sad of its current situation. However, if there is positive news out of Egypt, it is that of the courageous youths who got a glimpse of freedom."

I stopped at length at every of his photographs...easily imagining what these people would tell me, how they lived, would they share their troubles, their sufferings. Some smile, but others are stoic. A woman squatting in her kitchen looks at the camera with incredibly sorrowful eyes. A laughing father hugs his child, whose future is uncertain. A man sits at a sidewalk cafe, his mind seemingly elsewhere. 

There is no joie de vivre, no joy of life, in any of these photographs. Egyptians were reputed for their sense of humor, their exuberance, their hospitality and their kindness. Where has it gone? All I see from these photographs, supplemented by the barrage of disturbing news out of Egypt, are people who have been ground to dust by life exigencies, by bad luck, by governmental mismanagement, by poverty, by illiteracy, by inequities, by corruption, by intolerance and by religious misinterpretations.

That's all I see.

Denis Dailleux is a French photographer, who lived in Cairo for many years. His photographic work is imbued by the strong bonds he develops with those he frames with his camera. His passion for people has led him to take up portraiture as his preferred means of representation. He has patiently constructed unique portraits of people in his beloved Cairo

Aisha Al-Shabrawy | Travel Fashion Fusion

Photo © Aisha Al-Shabrawy-All Rights Reserved

I find it uplifting to stumble on photographic work that comes out of Egypt, the land of my birth, that is colorful, joyous, modern and of good taste. It's a welcome antidote for all the negative news we are deluged about Egypt which is currently neck-deep in economic woes, with its people facing an uncertain future.

Whenever I look out of my flights that are about to land in Cairo,  I never fail to wonder as to why its buildings are all beige...the color of sand. Apart from a few spots of greenery along the Nile river, that's all that the eye can see. Beige upon beige upon beige. Depressing really. The desert's proximity to the capital is culpable, since the frequent easterly winds bring in the khamseen...the sand storms that occasionally fill the air. Add this to the vehicular pollution, and one has a toxic mix of environmental factors that converts brilliant white paint to the dull color of sand in a matter of months.

So it is really an elevating moment for me to see Aisha Al-Shabrawy's colorful and aesthetically tasteful photographs of attractive model(s) wearing various fashionable accessories that are locally produced. It might seem commonplace to some of us used to see such travel-fashion photographs all the time on the pages of various glossy magazines, and on the streets of New York City (as an example), but I know full well how hard it is to produce them in Egypt.

I think possessing a strong color aesthetic/sense is largely innate, but can also be an acquired talent. I might be overstating it, but being exposed to bland colors all one's life ought to dull one's color and aesthetic appreciations. India is well known for its brilliant colors; just take a look at the women's saris and other traditional attire. When I travel to India, I am -as many others- overwhelmed and overpowered by its colors.

Anyway, back to Ms Al-Shabrawy's work. Those images featuring eyewear were shot in Aswan, in the south of Egypt. The rural houses are painted in the blues of Jaipur in Rajasthan and Chefchaouen in Morocco, and their facades are decorated with naif drawings and religious phrases.

Yes, it's uplifting to see these images...and to forget (even for a moment) the drabness of Cairo and of Egypt's main cities. If only there was an enforceable law to paint its buildings in brilliant colors... annually!!!

Roger Anis | Closet Full of Dreams

Photo © Roger Anis-All Rights Reserved

"To be a woman in Egypt is to live with the crushing inevitability of sexual harassment. The magnitude of the problem is epidemic, with 99.3% of Egyptian women having been sexually harassed, according to a 2013 U.N. Women report."

Despite faltering and sporadic government efforts, sexual harassment of women in Egypt has been described as a cancerous epidemic, especially during druing the past few years which saw the country's numerous political upheavals.

Roger Anis is a photojournalist working at an Egyptian daily newspaper whose recent and meaningful work "Closet Full of Dreams" was recently featured on TIME's Lightbox. His objective was to publicize the issue by making diptych portraits of women next to the clothes they would wear on the streets, if only they felt safe enough.

On a personal note: While I have no intention of generalizing (since I'm certain that this behavior is not universal amongst Egyptian youths), I do not know what happened to the Egyptian male psyche. Growing up in a Cairo suburb, which was totally Westernized at the time, I rarely -if ever- witnessed or heard of any sexual harassment. Women dressed as they chose; some provocatively, some less so... but there was no fear of them being harassed anywhere they chose to go. Yes, they may have drawn admiring glances, perhaps a whistle or two and even a funny comment...which would be frowned upon by passers-by and others.

There must be root causes for this epidemic. Is it caused by over-population, poverty, absence of cicil societal norms that progressively evaporated? I recall often hearing the word "shahama"...the Egyptian word for 'chivalry'...and 'honor', and an innate duty to assist and protect women, whether these were known to us or not. What happened to it? Is it a perverted misinterpretation of Islam one of the reasons to treat women in such a despicable way? True Islamic teachings call for the exact opposite; treating women with respect and dignity.

I have no answer. I just don't know. What I do know is that the Egyptian government must eradicate this epidemic as forcefully as any other public health issue, through the power of its courts and through the power of its media.

The age-old Shahama must return to Egypt.

Roger Anis is working as a photojournalist in the daily newspaper Al-Shorouk since 2010, covering various social issues in Egypt. He is one of the contributors to the Associated Press Agency, and received a Diploma in Photojournalism from the Danish school of Media & Journalism in June 2015. During his work in the newspaper and with AP, he covered a number of local important and historical moments, including the disenfranchisement of Coptic Christians.

His work has been published in international newspapers and magazines such as TIME, New York Times, Newsweek, Guardian , Le Monde, The Daily Mail, Newsweek, Aftenposten, and De Grone Amsterdammer. He has also been awarded a number of international and local recognitions.

He is also an alum of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop (Chiang Mai 2012).

Nour El-Rifai | The Nubians

Photo © Nour El-Rifai - All Rights Reserved

The Nubians are a distinct ethnic grouping of people of southern Egypt and northern Sudan, settling along the banks of the Nile from Aswan. They have a long history dating back to dynastic Egypt, and  founded a dynasty that ruled Upper and Lower Egypt during the 8th century BCE. It is estimated that they number about 300,000.

For many years, many Nubians found employment in the wealthier households of the main Egyptian cities, where their work ethics, and honesty were highly valued. However, for many years after the building of dams and the High Dam in Aswan, many were marginalized and unsuccessful in their efforts to return to their original homeland.

That Nubian displacement began early in the 20th century, when a series of dams built by the British along the Nile engulfed swathes of Nubia and uprooted thousands of Nubian farmers and fishermen from the banks of the Nile.

Egypt's new constitution  pledges "to bring back the residents of Nubia to their original areas and develop them within a decade." Now, tens of thousands of Egyptian Nubians feel they might have their chance.

Nour El Rifai's The Nubians is a collection of photographs of Nubians who live on Seheil island  about 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of Aswan.

While Nour El Refai is a self-taught photographer, he also obtained a degree in architecture at Cairo University and is working as an Architectural photographer. His interest in travel made him explore documentary and cultural photography. He worked as a documentary photographer on stories and assignments in Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, India, and Turkey. He taught architectural photography within the academic field in various Egyptian universities; and is currently teaching photography in many cultural and art centers.

Mosa’ab El Shamy | Egypt's Mawlid |TIME LightBox

Photo © Mosa’ab El Shamy- Courtesy Time LightBox

"Mawlid" is the Arabic word for birthday, and in the context of this feature, is a religious birthday. The most celebrated in the Muslim world is the birthday of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam. However, there are many others religious birthdays that are observed in some countries, such as Egypt.

Although the majority of Muslim scholars favor the observance of Muhammad's birthday, the more orthodox do not. In some countries, such as Egypt and Sudan, Mawlid is used as a generic term for the celebration of birthdays of local Sufi saints as well. Around 3,000 Mawlid celebrations are held each year and attended by tens of thousands of people.

The largest Mawlid in Egypt attracts up to three million people, and honors Ahmad al-Badawi, a local 13th-century Sufi saint. It is easy to forget that Egypt was once the seat of the Fatimid Caliphate, a Shia Islamic caliphate, which left exquisite examples of Islamic architecture such as the Al Azhar University, the Al Hakim mosque and the El Hussein mosque (Masjid El Imam Hussein).

The largest Mawlid is that of Ahmad Al-Badawi, the founder of the Badawiyyah Sufi order, a Moroccan Sufi who fought the Crusaders in the 13th century.

Exploring The Mawlids of Egypt is the work of Egyptian photographer Mosa’ab El Shamy, a Cairo-based independent photographer who covers daily news stories, as well as in-depth cultural and social documentary projects. In 2013, TIME picked one of Mosa'ab's photographs among its best 10 photos of the year. He won an Award of Excellence from Pictures of the Year International competition and then selected by PDN among its 30 Emerging Photographers in 2014, as well as one of the Guardian’s Top 10 Youth in Digital Media.  

He also won the Egypt International Photography Contest and Arab Union of Photographers competition and was shortlisted for numerous awards including the Terry O’Neil award, Hasselblad and Professional Photographer of The Year.

Bernat Armangue | The Copts of Egypt

Photo © Bernat Armangue-All Rights Reserved

Amongst all the angst and hubris of the events in Egypt during the past few years, attention should be given to its largest minority group; the Copts, the native Christians of Egypt.

Wikipedia tells us that "Christianity was the religion of the vast majority of Egyptians from 400–800 A.D. and the majority after the Muslim conquest until the mid-10th century and remains the faith of a significant minority population."

"Significant" is the word used by the online encyclopedia, since it's almost impossible to get an accurate number from Egyptian governmental sources.  I also read in The Guardian that no one in Egypt can agree on how many people live in Cairo, let alone the precise ratio of Muslims to Christians. But senior government clerics are quite sure of one thing: there are exactly 866 atheists in Egypt – roughly 0.00001% of the population. Ridiculous, and somewhat reminiscent of Ahmadinejad's assertion that there were no gays in Iran...and the same flaky arithmetic applies to the Copts.

Bernat Armangue's 15 photographs in his Copts In The New Egypt provide us with a sliver of a glimpse in the daily lives of Egyptian Copts. In the current religious climate, no one can tell the Copts' future in their own land, and whether this will lead to increased emigration to other countries such as the USA, Canada and Australia.

Bernat is a Spanish photographer born in Barcelona. He freelanced for various Spanish newspapers, and has been working with The Associated Press since 2005. He covered the Middle East (mostly the Israeli-Palestinian conflict), and recently moved to Delhi to cover South Asia.

The Last Anchorite | Egypt

An anchorite is someone who, for religious reasons, withdraws from secular society so as to be able to lead an intensely ascetic and prayer-oriented life. In other words, a religious hermit with a "fixed address'.

This 19 minutes-long documentary features the story of Father Anthony El Lazarus, a Coptic monk who lives in seclusion in the Red Sea mountains, in a 4th-century monastery about 200 miles southeast of Cairo, Egypt. He's former university lecturer in literature and philosophy, and spent 40 years as an atheist.

This is an ancient tradition since early Christians flocked to the Egyptian deserts where Copts had already embraced the idea of a solitary, devout Christian life. It's accepted that he early Christians were inspired by the eremitic (reclusive) traditions of the Hebrews.

The Coptic Church is based on the teachings of Saint Mark who brought Christianity to Egypt during the reign of the Roman emperor Nero in the first century. He was one of the four evangelists and wrote the oldest canonical gospel. Christianity was the religion of the vast majority of Egyptians from 400–800 A.D. and of the majority after the Muslim conquest until the mid-10th century and remains the faith of a significant minority population. 

With wonderful cinematic skills, filmmaker Remigiusz Sowa captures the essence of the reclusive monastic life led by Father Anthony and those like him in the isolated monastery in the Red Sea Mountains.

POV: Rocks And Hard Places

Photo © Max Lee-All Rights Reserved

I occasionally depart from opining on photography or on stuff that piss me off...but this time, this POV is personal.

Egypt, my country of birth, is once again facing an incredibly dangerous phase in its 7000 years' history. I've spent most of my life elsewhere, and while perhaps in some ways that detaches me from it, I still have a connection. Seeing the current turbulence on the various television channels and reading the news articles enhances that connection, and whatever my current emotions are, they're based on the residuals gleaned during the earlier years of my life.

As everyone knows, there are three main power centers in Egypt at this time: the 'street' who's had enough of  authoritarian regimes but is ill-organized, the military and the Islamists/Muslim Brotherhood...both well organized.

I've already expressed my views on the removal of Morsi from the presidency in other forums, so I won't repeat them here....but in summary, my view is that he deserved his removal due to his administration's abysmal record during the past 12 months, and Egypt can ill-afford suffering another 3 long years of this terrible governance.

My personal position is this: I don't want a religious clique to govern Egypt...I don't want them to impose their interpretation of Islam on anyone....whether Muslim, Christian, Jew, Baha'i, Shia, Sufi,  agnostic or atheist...I don't want them to impose a style of dress on women...I don't want them to tell women to stay home and not work....I don't want them to interfere in anyone's personal or public life...I don't want them to claim 'jihad' for any cause they deem appropriate to sully Islam further...I don't want them to influence education (already bad enough) in Egypt...I don't want them to tell anyone what to read or not to read...to view or not to view...I don't want them to discriminate against anyone...against any gender or lifestyle....

With the 'street' as disorganized as it is, lthis eaves the military as the only, and potentially temporary, viable alternative. I'm uncomfortable with that option...very uncomfortable. But the military -while execrable when confronting threats to its authority- is more interested in administering its industrial complex and business interests than interfering in daily life....and having a political role distracting them from their lucrative activities.

Eventually, the 'street' will mature, get organized and rise to the task of democracy...and perhaps the military will then cede the reins. Perhaps the youths of the Muslim Brotherhood will remove its current old ideologues and reshape themselves into a constructive political party.

Egypt's St. Anthony Monastery | Manoocher Deghati

Photo © AP Photo/Manoocher Deghati-All Rights Reserved (MercuryNews.com)

Through Zite, I stumbled on this very interesting photo essay about the Monastery of St Anthony in the Egyptian Eastern Desert. It's a Coptic Orthodox monastery lying deep in the Red Sea mountains, and about 200 miles southeast of Cairo. It is one of the oldest monasteries in the world.

The photo essay was featured by MercuryNews.com, and the photographs are by Manoochar Deghati, a well-known Iranian-French photojournalist, and also the brother of Reza, an Iranian-French photographer.

The monks at the St. Anthony's Monastery follow the saint's ascetic tradition, but even they won't be silenced amid the Islamists' rising power.

I think the MercuyNews.com reportage is quite timely in view of the recent attacks on Egyptian Christians caused by the increase in bigoted religious rhetoric by Islamists. Clerics and others on religious television channels in Egypt spread much of the bigotry and discriminatory rhetoric, and despite claiming to be otherwise, members of the Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm, have stigmatized religious minorities, particularly Copts.

Christians or Copts form more than 10% of Egypt's population of 85 million, and lived largely peacefully alongside Muslims for more than a millennium. Sectarian tensions have steadily risen over the past four decades, and the prominence of the Islamists and the Islamist government raised tensions further, have exacerbated the sectarian frictions.

The Copts are the native Christians of Egypt, and are a major ethno-religious group in Egypt.  Christianity was the majority religion during the 4th to 6th centuries AD and until the Muslim conquest of Egypt.

Roy Gunnels | Cairo's Al Muizz Street

Photo © Roy Gunnels-All Rights Reserved

Almost every morning, I scour news websites for updated news on Egypt...my birth country that is experiencing an extremely painful transition from authoritarianism to a sort of chaotic "democracy".  Every day, I read of (and see) examples of incompetence in governance, anarchy, street level anarchy, human rights abuses, violence, economic melt-down, emergence of black markets, capital flight, political paralysis, religious zealotry and antediluvian ideology, sexual harassement, discrimination, civil disobedience, institutional rot and corruption...the list is too long, where do I stop? It has gone for bad to worse...and the end is not in sight.

And yet, Egypt has -over the eons of its existence- survived it's ups and downs...but this time it seems that its luck may have run out. It was better when I grew up there...but it was still better than that when my parents grew up, and it was even better than that when their parents grew up...it's a downward spiral.

I recall walking reasonably recently in Al Muizz street in the medieval section of Cairo...a literal stone's throw from the famed Al Azhar, the Muslim center of learning...so I was glad to have found Roy Gunnel's photographs of that particular street titled A Pastiche of The Street . The street is about one kilometer long and houses shops of traditional wares.

Its full name is a mouthful...it's named after  El Moez Lel Din'ellah, a Fatimid (969-1171) ruler famed for his enlightened rule, and was renowned for his drive to build monuments, mosques and other buildings.

As my readers will see, street photography here is incredibly rewarding and rich of daily life. Another of my favorites (apart from the one above) is the one of a antique store keeper rubbing his toes, with his back turned to an ancient gramophone.

Roy Gunnels is a documentary and fine-art photographer from Fort Worth. He worked the past few years in the Middle-East and Africa while based in Cairo, Egypt. He was profiled and his work from the streets of Cairo featured in The Guardian, as well as the Egyptian Midan Misr newspaper, and the Atlantic Council’s ‘Egypt Source’. His images from the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 have been recommended for exhibit at the World Peace Center in Verdun, France.

Xenia Nikolskaya: Dust, Egypt's Forgotten Palaces

Photo © Xenia Nikolskaya-All Rights Reserved

From afar, it seems Egypt and its people are still waiting to exhale since its popular uprising against the Mubarak regime, and 60 years of dictatorships...and whilst I try my best to counter the lay neo-cons and the agenda-driven commentators who write absurd comments about its current events and future in The New York Times by writing my own points of view (and they all get featured without fail), I fear the internal political situation in Egypt is murky, and will remain unsettled for the near future ...and that's an immense understatement.

So Xenia Nikolskaya's work on the UK's Daily Telegraph suffused me with mixed feelings. Dust is a good title for her photographs of buildings built after the Suez Canal opened in 1869, and before Nasser came to power in 1954, introducing sequestration decrees that would send many of the wealthy elite into exile.

The buildings, mansions, movie theaters, and retails stores that are depicted in Xenia's Dust have mostly fallen into disrepair. Due to long standing governmental rent-control policies, these once ornate and grandiose buildings were left to rot, with no repairs or maintenance done, as landlords weren't making money from them.

I recall the names of some of them....Radio Cinema ( I watched movies there, at a time when I was careful to count my change as the women at the ticket had the habit of "rounding" it in their favor), Sakakini Palace, Sarageldine Palace, while others are unknown to me.

Xenia Nikolskaya graduated from the Academy of Art in St Petersburg and then went on to study at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen. She has worked as a professional photographer since 1995, and became a member of the Russian Art Union in 2001. She first came to Egypt in 2003 as part of a Russian archaeological mission.

NYTimes: Moises Saman's Egypt's Choice

Presidential election fever has been gripping Egypt for months, and it'll perhaps come to a conclusion in the coming few days...or in another few weeks, if a runoff is the case.

Along with many millions of Egyptians, I couldn't believe my eyes when watching the first ever presidential debate in the Middle East took place earlier this month. Yes, it was flawed...yes, the two frontrunners went overboard in hyperbole and off topic attacks one each other... but nowhere else in the Arab world, has such a spectacle ever been seen before.

Yes, Egypt's political transition has been farcical, messy, bizarre, chaotic, violent, unpredictable, and serious, ....however after centuries of Pharaonic kingdoms, various foreign occupations, colonialism,  royalty and dictatorships, Egyptians were now experiencing the teething pains of democracy. I raise my hands in wonder when I read articles by educated journalists and pundits who claim that after 30 years of Mubarak's regime, Egypt is experiencing democracy. It's not 30 years...but over 2500 years!

In recognition of this critical milestone in Egypt's (and in the world's) history, I feature Moises Saman's Egypt's Choice as published in The New York Times.

18 Days In Egypt

A power struggle of epic proportions between various political factions is currently underway in Egypt...essentially a troika of conflicting interests, the power struggle is manifesting itself overtly and covertly. Overtly, the battle for power is over the presidency, and is between the Muslim Brotherhood, (a comparatively pragmatic Islamic movement) the Salafists (a regressive Islamist faction), and the military establishment. The secular forces seem to have been marginalized, even though it was its youth who sparked and carried through the revolution in 2011.

That said, it's not over till the fat lady sings...and there will be more twists and turns to this story as it enfolds over the days and weeks to come.

I thought the 18DaysIn Egypt documentary being worked on by filmmaker and journalist Jigar Mehta is working on a new kind of documentary is especially timely in such a fluid political situation. It's a crowd-sourced interactive documentary project aimed at capturing the history of the revolution in Egypt.

The context of this documentary is simple enough. In the 18 days of Egypt's uprising that began on January 25, 2011 and that ended with the resignation of Hosni Mubarak, thousands of Egyptians turned to their cell phones, digital cameras or social media sites to document the events unfolding in Cairo and across the country.

Tapping into this wealth of material, American documentary filmmaker and journalist Jigar Mehta co-founded 18DaysInEgypt.

Nadia Shira Cohen: Egypt, The Burned Earth

Photos © Nadia Shira Cohen-All Rights Reserved

“Mohammad, Mohammad, Mohammad,” she muttered. The words escaped just slightly under her breath as the tears began rolling down her face.

It's been a year and a day since Hosni Mubarak was forced out of office by the Egyptian people, and I thought it worthwhile to feature the work of Nadia Shira Cohen, which appeared in The New York Times a few days ago.

Her work focused on the Egyptian victims of the country’s so-called emergency law, principally by talking with them first, and then by photographing them.

Whilst Nadia's photographs and synopsis of her conversation, or interviews, with a handful of these victims appear on her website, her photographs also appear on the The New York Times' LENS blog.

All of her interviews are painful to read...but I thought the most poignant was that of the mother of Mohammed Attiah, who's bedridden with grief at the disappearance of her son some 18 years ago at the hands of the Egyptian police.  She has never stopped saying his name since then.

Nadia Shira Cohen pursued her passion for photography at the University of Vermont, with a semester abroad at the SACI school in Florence, Italy. She worked as a photographer in New York City for the Associated Press and for Sipa Press.  She then went on to work at the VII photo agency, then moved Rome, Italy where she continues to tell stories of the lives of people who interest her and which she compassionately feels the need to expose.

POV: Lost In Translation?

Photo © AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen- Courtesy DenverPost.com

I've seen quite a few errors in the captions of photographs recently, but this one is probably the most misleading. The photograph appeared in the Pictures of the Week on the Denver Post Plog. 

Underneath the photograph is a caption that reads "Eman Mohammed, 7, holds a placard that reads in Arabic, "our army is over our head, and the parliament belongs to the ousted," during a protest in Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. The parliament elected in Egypt's first legislative vote after Hosni Mubarak's ouster nearly a year ago held its inaugural session on Monday, with Islamists dominating the 498-seat chamber that will oversee the drafting of a new constitution."

This is incorrect, and is at a 180 degrees divergence from what is on the placard. The correct translation of the Arabic words on the placard is "Our Army is over our head (ie a colloquialism for being held in great esteem)...The Council belongs (or follows) the ousted (for the ousted Mubarak)."

The Council referred to on the placard is not the Parliament, but is the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. This is totally divergent from what the caption incorrectly states. The child is presumably one of the protestors who took part in a demonstration against the military council, not against the civilian Parliament.

I always wondered whether in such a case, would the error be that of the photographer (in this case, an Arabic speaker) or someone else?

A Year Ago...Egypt

Photo © Ed Ou - All Rights Reserved

In remembrance of those who fell in Tahrir and elsewhere. The Egyptian revolution started a year ago today, and is still ongoing.

And to the naysayers, neo-cons and the rest of the mindless individuals who prefer Arab dictatorships, and see democracy (as imperfect as it may be) taking its first steps in Egypt and the rest of the Middle East as an existentialist threat, go screw yourselves.

And to those who are optimistic, here are, via Foreign Policy Magazine, the young Egyptians who will eventually succeed in achieving what they started.

Ed Ou: The Egyptian Youth

Photo © Ed Ou-All Rights Reserved

The news that "Islamists" seem to have won a majority in Egypt's first Parliament since the ouster of Mubarak is being reported by the US media in disquieting vocabulary, especially since it came at the expense of the liberal parties and youth activists who set off the revolution.  Many secular Egyptians are expressing alarm and anxiety at the result of the initial round of Parliamentary elections, while others shrug off these results by predicting that the Muslim Brotherhood (as one of the factions described as Islamists) may well have a majority, but will either choose or be forced to exert its political clout in a moderate fashion.

Ed Ou has covered the momentous events in Egypt ever since the start of the revolution, and has recently featured his work in progress of The Egyptian Youth.

Ed is a Canadian photojournalist who has been working in the Middle East, former Soviet Union, Africa, and the Americas. He started his career as a teenager, covering the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, and the fall of the Islamic Courts in Mogadishu, Somalia. He worked for Reuters and the Associated Press, and was also an intern at the New York Times.

He is the recipient of a Global Vision Award from POYi, a 1st Place Contemporary Issues award from World Press Photo, and other recognition from the Overseas Press Club, Ian Parry Scholarship, Best of Photojournalism, PDN Photo Annual, UNICEF, among others. He has been selected for a Getty Images Editorial Grant, PDN 30 Under 30, and took part in the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass. He was recently awarded the City of Perpignan Young Reporter Award.

via PhotojournalismLinks

POV: Moises Saman And Cairo Undone

Photo © Moises Saman-All Rights Reserved  

How wrong I was! I always dismissed the idea of photographing street life in Cairo by saying that there was nothing to photograph there...not much color, no vibrancy....but that began to change after the January Revolution. Was it a subconscious rejection of the then-prevailing environment? Or simply because I was blase about photographing in my own backyard...albeit one that I left for more than 30 years? Was it both? Perhaps.

That admission being made, I have to clarify that I speak only of street life rather than particular cultural subject matters, such as documenting Sufi rituals such as those I photographed a few years ago.

What changed my mind is the brilliant photo essay in The New York Times titled Cairo Undone by Moises Saman.  The photo essay (it's really a gallery as there's no storyline nor timeline) is of snapshots (I use this term very respectfully) of daily life in Cairo...the gritty, the edgy, the incomprehensible, the political and the anachronisms that dominate this teeming city.

I intended to post this as soon as I saw the photographs, but I was in Siem Reap and just couldn't find the time. I have viewed and re-viewed this work many times, and it revived in me a hunger to document facets of this city. Is it a nostalgic yearning? I doubt it...I don't think that way. It's similar to my documenting the Sufi rituals in various countries...that is nothing more than an intellectual and aesthetic pursuit.

It's the same for Cairo...nothing more nothing less. But time will tell.

Miguel Ángel Sánchez: Portraits Of Egyptians

Photo ©  Miguel Ángel Sánchez-All Rights Reserved

Since elections are going full steam ahead in Egypt, The New York Times' Lens blog has featured Portraits of Egyptians, a series of wonderful photographs by the talented Miguel Ángel Sánchez.

I absolutely love seeing photographic work of that nature...ethnographic to a large extent, and produced by borrowing the techniques of the Old Masters. Miguel Ángel Sánchez photographed 110 residents of Cairo in his studio; these included musicians, painters, politicians, writers, bloggers, shoeshiners, doormen, and the vendor of flowers above, which is absolutely my favorite amongst all of them. My least favorite is that of Zahi Hawass, the ex-Minister of Antiquities, not because of the image but because of the man himself. I don't know the man, but I developed an antipathy for his brash behavior and loudness in National Geographic television specials (as an example).

You will not find the photograph of the flower vendor on the Lens blog, but rather it's on Miguel Ángel Sánchez website. The flowers she's seen selling are jasmine, which are popular in Egypt for the powerful sweet smell. I believe the jasmine flowers sold on string strands are called "fol", and are popular in Egypt to deodorize one's car or to gift to one's sweetheart while strolling the city's gardens.

But back to the LENS blog...a comment was rather critical of the photographer for choosing to depict the Egyptians in Renaissance settings. I disagree. In choosing the lighting and poses similar to those we have seen so many times in museums and galleries the photographer creates acceptability for his subjects to the Western eye.

Global Post: Egypt's Women Of Revolution

Photo © Elizabeth D. Herman-All Rights Reserved

While I'm here in Siem Reap, I am following the events in Cairo with mixed feelings...feelings of pride and anxiety. The outcome of the 'rebooted' Egyptian revolution is impossible to predict, but some pundits have describe the current events in Tahrir Square as Egyptians trying to reclaim their January 25 revolution from the military.

There are a number of recent photo essays from Tahrir Square, but I thought I'd feature the work of Global Post's Elizabeth D. Herman titled Egypt: Women of the Revolution.

This is a compelling gallery of 18 photographs along with captions that tell us the back stories of each photograph. Last month, Elizabeth Herman spoke to 13 Egyptian women about the media’s coverage of women’s involvement in the Egyptian revolution. Their roles were varied, as were their experiences and reactions to the revolution, with some having actively joined the movement and others forced to do so by circumstance. All have much to say about how it has affected their lives, and how their experiences are similar to — and different from —those of other Egyptian women.

As is customary whenever readers' comments on the news of the Egyptian revolution appear in The New York Times, Islamophobia and political agendas raise their ugly heads. Comments describing the Egyptian revolutionaries as 'savages', and others hoping that the upheaval would not harm Israel (presumably this being much more important than Egyptians having basic human rights) are sent to the newspaper and published without consideration.

And, of course...we have some of the US press indulging the American proclivity for inward introspection, narcissism, and insularity. Just take a look at TIME's cover for its US edition as compared to the rest of the world's.

Both hilarious and sad at the same time.