CAIRO: Robert Azzi’s photographs of Cairo, currently on display at the Sony Gallery of Photography at the American University in Cairo, are simply heart-wrenching.
The show, featuring the famous Arab-American Muslim photojournalist, entitled, “Whatever I saw before my eyes saw you were a wasted life, provides a unique look at Cairo. Unlike the photographs of Cairo that adorn many a gallery wall, with cliché pictures of the Pyramids and temples, Azzi’s photographs of Cairene life have managed to capture what many a photographer has been unable to; he depicts the sad, the happy, the real side of Egypt and its culture that both foreigners and Egyptians have never taken the time to really look at.
“There is pain in some of the photographs. It was painful to take some of them, and painful now to look at some of them, and painful to think of the circumstances that created the pain, says Azzi. “But beyond the pain, there is beauty, there is dignity, there is the essence of the triumph of the human spirit, inspired by faith.
Speaking of reality, one particular photograph comes to mind: that of a young boy, working in a tire shop. In the photograph, the boy is sitting beside a tire he is fixing, with his hands on his face, as if he is taking a break, resting. His hands are blackened by dirt, so much so that his white face, which we get a glimpse of through his hands, creates a startling contrast between white and black. Azzi vividly captures the details of the picture, the stance and quiet dignity of the boy, with the resulting feeling being pain and sadness.
“Boy in the tire shop, so young, and so tired, when I think of my photos of Cairo, I always remember this picture. This boy, so young and so tired, epitomized both futility and also our ability to endure almost incredible hardship in order to sustain life, says Azzi on a description plaque by the photograph.
With his photographs, Azzi also presents a fusion of Egyptian tradition and culture with the Westernization of the country. In one photograph, you see a tall, slim Western man dressed in a suit, and in the background stands a short, plump Egyptian woman dressed in white robes and a veil. The two people seem unaware of each other, even though their shoulders are slightly turned toward each other. It’s a moment on a quiet street in Egypt, when tradition and modernism meet and touch briefly, unaware of the impact their cultures will have on each other.
“What you see before you are some of (my) memories, some of my impressions. It is not enough, I know, to show pictures of the Pyramids and Khan Khalili as the tourists see them, or as you Cairenes and Egyptians, residents of this vast and beautiful city, would like me to see it, says Azzi.
Azzi has also managed to imprint lasting impressions on his Egyptian audience. In one photograph, he captures Khan Khalili in a way most Egyptians have never seen it.
In this photograph, a man is sitting in a deserted café in the midst of Khan Khalili, quietly reading a newspaper. For most Egyptians, Khan Khalili is known for its hustle and bustle, its dirty streets, its vendors, foreigners and shisha. For most, it’s a place where Egypt is most alive, where the rich and the poor sip tea together. Yet Azzi has managed to capture the quiet, peaceful side of it. Through his photograph he has shown the reality of Khan Khalili, the real people who wake up in the mornings and sit there, uninterested in the products being sold,
“I wanted to take pictures of Cairo that would surprise Egyptians, he says of one of his photographs of the Sultan Hassan Mosque that seems to loom in its greatness over two small figures of a man in a galabeya and a veiled woman who walk in its shadow. “As a Muslim, I worship here in sacred spaces that have given solace, protection and education to my Muslim brothers and sisters for centuries. As an Arab, I walk the streets ever aware of the history that has come before us all, from Asia, Africa and Europe, forging not just a capital, but a home that embraces us all. And as an American photojournalist, I pass through your streets, suqs and homes as your guest, taking photographs that become memories.
Most of Azzi’s photographs that are currently on display feature mosques and the Nile. However, what makes them strike a chord with visitors is the beauty of the simplicity of the moment.
A sunset over the Nile will always be a great picture; however, in Azzi’s Nile sunsets, it’s the moment when the sky becomes a swirl of vivid oranges, reds and pinks that the photograph takes a different meaning and its beauty is no longer passé.
Azzi first arrived in Cairo in the winter of 1969 and on the day of his arrival he attended an Umm Kalthoum concert, which sealed his love of Egypt forever.
“The photographs of that night were lost (due to the Lebanese Civil War) but the memory remains ever so vivid. The over-heated, smoke-filled room was filled with fellahs and bureaucrats, students with aging remnants of the ancient regime, says Azzi of that night. “Immediately there was formed an unbroken, umbilical-like channel between the Diva and her audience, through which passed all the flowing passions, messages of love, angst and faith, which connected the Arab world, from Casablanca to cafes in Basra, through living rooms and taxis and doorways populated by sleepy bawabs, where the faithful were hanging onto every phrase, every note, ever pause. She sang, ‘Whatever I saw before my eyes saw you was a wasted life.’ And I became a captive of the magic of the night, swept up in the currents of the Nile. I knew that wherever else I traveled, a special place had been opened in my heart for Cairo.
Robert Azzi is an internationally known photographer who has been covering the Middle East and Arab world for over thirty years. His work has appeared in publications such as National Geographic, Life, Time, Epoca, Newsweek, Sunday Times Magazine (UK), Paris Match, and Geo.
In 1976 he was the first freelance photographer to receive a Nieman Fellowship in Journalism at Harvard University and has won several awards in both the United States and Europe. Robert Azzi’s work is in private and public collections in the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, and has been selected for display at three World’s Fairs and at Photokina (Germany).
The Sony Gallery for Photography is located on the Main Campus of the American University in Cairo, and Azzi’s photographs will be on display until March 27, 2006.
