Artist employs the photo faux-pas as inspiration for his latest collection
Blurred images and warped colors are two of the photo world’s biggest sins.
However, for Cairo-based photographer Paul Ayoub-Geday, a photo faux pas can be re-imagined as a point of inspiration.
“I was always interested in bad photos – photos that were blurred or burned out, Ayoub-Geday tells The Daily Star Egypt.
In his latest exhibit, the aptly titled “Scapes, many of the photos are badly focused and discombobulating pieces of work which communicate a confused – and mildly depressing – mood.
“Of course, the imperfection has to make sense with what you have in mind contextually and thematically, he adds, noting that most of the photos were culled from recent travels around Cairo, El Fayoum and Alexandria.
Think of the exhibit as post-modern images of a peri-urban landscape. It runs at the Townhouse Gallery until Feb. 23.
Oddly, Ayoub-Geday’s interest in flawed images stems from his years as a workmanlike portrait photographer. In those days, he had to make due with dodgy equipment and errant film development techniques.
While portrait photography generally requires the photographer to present flattering, straight-forward pictures for family consumption, Ayoub-Geday says working with different cameras and developers would often lend his work an otherworldly quality.
“Typically in Cairo, processing and developing has been pretty bad, he says. “You would take a photo of something you think is beautiful and the water ends up green instead of blue.
The whole process, says Ayoub-Geday, was arduous and labor intensive, and he says that working as a photographer in Cairo before the digital boom “took a lot of patience and perseverance.
“Some years ago, you had to process your own film, he recalls, noting that one of his cameras, which was a cheap Japanese knock-off, would often lend the photos a time-machine feel.
“The whole taste of the image, between the camera and the development made it look like it was from the 1950s, he says.
Ayoub-Geday shot most of “Scapes with analogue film, which preserved a sense of spontaneity and surprise. None of the photos were doctored afterwards with computer software like Photoshop, giving the collection a frenzied, improvised air.
Only two of the photos were shot with a digital camera.
“Frankly, I was quite surprised with the digital, and I’m a pretty old school guy, he notes, adding that the immediacy of digital is incredible for somebody reared on analog cameras and film, where one can “shoot for ten hours and not get anything good.
“I like to experiment when different cameras. Different cameras lend themselves to different tastes. They influence the work, he says.
“To shoot landscapes or cityscapes or whatever, you need to be in the right place at the right moment. A lot of it has to do with waiting.
Adding that the exhibit is a continuation of his work as a landscape painter, Ayoub-Geday notes that the tone of the work isn’t exactly optimistic.
“It should be depressing, because it’s about loss, he says. “It’s not terribly positive, even if you have something beautiful, you ask when [humanity] is going to fuck it up.
“Scapes runs at the The Townhouse Gallery until Feb. 23 10 Nabrawry St., off Champollion St., Downtown, Cairo
