Photographer Amr Nabil’s exhibit captures essence of local traditions
Although Ramadan is a religious month shared by Muslims all around the world, it is observed differently in every Muslim country. AP Photographer Amr Nabil has put together a photography exhibition featuring several different cultural aspects of Ramadan here in Egypt. He has pulled out all the work he has archived that “has a smell of Ramadan, he explains, to present at Salam Gallery during the holy month.
The exhibit is divided into several sub-themes. He seeks out the authentic classic icons of Ramadan like the mosaharaty (the person who roams the streets calling out to people in their houses to wake them up before dawn to eat their last meal before fasting) as well as simple images like people trying to shop for food in an impossibly crowded market.
“The mosaharaty was hard to find, I kept looking for him in the deserted alleyways at 3:00 a.m. When I finally tracked down the mosaharaty, I discovered she was a woman, he says.
Of course also figuring into the collection is the famous maedat el-rahman (the tables set on streets that offer food to all comers as a type of charity). Nabil focuses on the people awaiting the food, he explains that he had to go to many until he found the precise color he was looking for, an opportunity to capture the exact moment he wanted.
The man making handmade konafa (an oriental dessert) is also part of the exhibit, he explains, “It’s almost extinct. in 10 years time it’s doubtful that it will still exist. Nabil says he generally likes to document Egyptian folk activities that are in danger of extinction.
In another series of pictures, he focuses on one woman’s battle to buy bread.
After Ramadan, comes the eid (the feast). Nabil tries to capture the two opposing sides of the country. He contrasts the poorer areas and how they celebrate a mulid (festival) with a primitive Ferris wheel and swings, with the “rich who celebrate at dolphin shows and with clowns that are rich in color.
Finally there is a section that shows photos of the Qa’ba and the hajj. These are a sneak preview to Nabil’s next exhibition, which will be strictly dedicated to El-Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage, but he has included a few of the pictures in this show to represent the fad of going to do an Omra, a visit to the holy places, during Ramadan.
Nabil, born in 1968, has been a photojournalist since 1990 when he started working for the Saudi newspaper “Okaz in Cairo. He then joined the French news agency AFP in 1996 where he continued to cover local and regional top news stories.
From 1999 to the present he has been working with AP.
In December 2005 his right eye was seriously injured while covering parliamentary elections in Egypt and he has to fly back and forth to Europe for treatment on his eye.
This exhibition is showing at Salam Gallery, Villa 18, Road 200, Degla, Maadi.
Don’t miss his next exhibition documenting Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage, at El-Sawy Cultural Center on Saturday, October 21. Stay tuned to our daily agenda for details.
