CAIRO: A marketer by profession, Randa Haggag dared to do what most executives caught up in the rat race only dream about. Through her passion for photography, which started off as a hobby, she was able to take a step back from the daily grind and really take notice of the beauty in her surroundings.
Egyptian-born Haggag is holding her first exhibition – a collection of photographs of the minarets of Cairo in Dubai this month. “I know this will sound corny, but when I left my country to work abroad, I realized how much I love it and how great this country is, she explains of her motivation in pulling together her work for the exhibition.
Haggag traveled frequently throughout the Middle East as part of her job. “This was when photography became very important to my life, and recording the beauty of these countries, each offering something new, she says.
In Egypt, the experience was much more personal. Having lived here most of her life, it was only when she moved to Dubai a few years ago and started visiting Cairo with a fresher perspective that its splendor struck her.
“Cairo is a city that is packed with beauty and saturated with wealth to the extent that I just took everything she was offering for granted until the day I left it, declares Haggag .
But it was the minarets of Cairo that captured her attention. “The theme of the exhibition came by pure coincidence. I was in Al-Azhar park, taking some pictures of [the city] during one of my visits back home. And I was chatting with a friend of mine about Cairo being the city of a thousands minarets – or a million minarets, explains Haggag. Her research only helped intensify her enthrallment for minarets; their beauty and symbolism touched her on a deep emotional level.
In the exhibition’s profile she writes, “I couldn’t stop my tears falling when I was in the car heading towards downtown Cairo and the Al-Azhar … I was moved from within and rocked by faith . Reaching for the heavens, stood around me countless number of minarets, tall, taller than anything around them, graceful spires, calling for prayers, each word pronounced is echoed by another muezzin on the other side.
She was able to realize her aspirations through her own initiatives; she contacted the gallery owner herself and approached him with the idea for her exhibition. “[The gallery owner] liked what I showed him and loved the idea. He wanted to know more about Egypt. So, we agreed to run the exhibition for three weeks, adds Haggag.
This was a considerable departure from dedicating most of her time and effort on her marketing at companies such as Shell, Henkel, Vodafone and, most recently, Reckitt Benckiser in Dubai.
Haggag’s photographs are an agent for showcasing the architectural beauty of Cairo’s minarets. “I realized that some things are just pretty enough; they don’t need any extra artistic touches to underline them. They just need a good eye to look for them, put them on a piece of paper and move them around the world, she elaborates. Consequently, her style is simple, making the minaret the hero as opposed to being upstaged by the photographer.
If you’re traveling to Dubai during July, you can visit the photography exhibition at Eye Gallery in the Bastakia Historical Place.
