Mohamed Gabr takes us through the ins and outs of commercial photography
After tracking down the very busy Mohamed Gabr, I was able to catch him between shoots and he was nice enough to give me a quick tutorial about the world of commercial photography in just under thirty minutes. The charismatic and talented Gabr is one of the country’s pioneering and highest-ranking photographers in the field of advertising. Remember the Jeep Cherokee ad taken on Kasr El-Eini Bridge at night? That is just one of the many award-winning ads Gabr has produced throughout his career.
Gabr went into the field of photography after an unsuccessful attempt at studying political science here in Cairo. He decided to move to Canada to study at the Dawson Institute of Photography in Montreal, and then earned a master’s degree in zone system and visualization from the Ansel Adams School in California.
At the time, he was working in stock photography, shooting all kinds of stuff that sell. “I did a lot of fine art, nudes, landscaping in black and white because the guy who taught me, John Sexton, was a master of black and white photography, says Gabr.
Next, he started to lecture at Concordia University. “As a Canadian professor in visualization and advertising photography in Canada, he had the advantage of experiencing on hand the vast variety of client needs and marketing solutions, the university web site describes.Finally in the early ’90s Gabr decided to return to Cairo. He says that it was the right time to come back as there was a lot of development in advertising going.. “My first commercial shot was a Fanta shoot with Look advertising. At the time, 1992, no one got paid for a single shot, and I got paid LE 3,500.
The change from fine art to adverting was easy, “You have to understand who they are selling to.you have to be flexible to what the client needs, not play the artist role and screw up the whole thing, says Gabr, who gets involved in many aspects of the campaigns.
Before shooting, the advertising agency and Gabr brainstorm to come up with an idea. To get a single shot, it usually takes up to one day, or sometimes two and budgets can run up to LE 10,000 so they focus on the prearranged idea.
In Egypt and the Middle East, Gabr explains that clients only ask for digital pictures, and that film has become almost extinct in the area, although international clients still ask for film.
People that have experience working in a dark room will never be completely happy with digital; he explains that “it’s a state of mind, working in a dark room, smelling the chemicals, burning your hands on the chemical…the ones that haven’t experienced this are missing out a lot on the process of learning, they just take a picture and try to fix it on a computer.
“There is a big loss of artist expression in the technical process, he says.
With digital, mediocre photographers may be able to produce nice pictures; of course the art of photography itself is lost. Someone without skill and talent in the art will eventually hit a ceiling and will never be that good, even if he has impeccable computer skills.
MG studios, his company, is not an advertising agency. It is purely a photography studio made up of himself, his assistants, an office manager and a driver. “I do not have employees, we are like a family, he says.
Gabr’s next move the transition to feature films. He has already produced three successful documentaries, and is now working on a script for Egypt’s first horror film, which he warns will be very scary.
Gabr has unfortunately stopped doing personal exhibitions of his beautiful pictures, but is working on a project that is extremely hush-hush that involves the Louvre Museum in France and a certain famous Egyptian designer, “and no more details for now, says Gabr laughing.
For Gabr, photography has become his chosen profession. “When I go on vacations I don’t even take my camera any more . my equipment has become so cumbersome, so big, so complicated, he says.
Mohammed Gabr has worked on various ads internationally, as well as hotels, fashion, interiors and fine art. Check out some of his famous works at www.mgabr.com.
