At a time when Egyptian talent and interest in photography is increasing, the work of Toufic Araman has garnered exceptional attention. In less than four years, Araman has learned not only how to handle a camera, but how to capture a variety of subjects with a unique eye.
A versatile photographer, Araman is a photojournalist, and a fashion photographer who also shoots food and hotel images. He has been commissioned by big names such as Vera Wang, Citibank, Starwood Hotels and Leo Burnett to name a few.
Surprisingly though, Araman was only recently introduced to photography.
He was handed a camera in December 2004 by a friend, and learned the necessary skills for taking exceptional photos in so short a time that by June 2005, he started selling his work.
“I couldn’t believe what a camera could do when I first got it. The best I had was a Minota 50 millimeter fixed lens used by my dad for special occasions. I had never considered a camera as an artistic tool. Although, I always wanted a career in art, and was never happy with my work in the hotel business, which I was successful at and had been doing since graduating from university.
A graduate of the American University in Cairo, Araman majored in economics and minored in fine arts, and had a passion for fashion and interior design. He always had an inclination for art, but never understood what specifically he could pursue. So he quit his job in Dubai and moved to New York, and enrolled in two photography schools. An intense overload of 12 classes at both the International Centre of Photography (ICP) and School of Visual Art in 2006 led Araman on a path he speaks about with ferocious passion.
While in New York for a year, he had no time for trivial pursuits. Studying under Time photographer Andre Lamberstone at the ICP, Araman was pushed by his teacher to look at photography with fresh eyes. Soon he developed his own style. The way he captures light and his lighting effects, creating a sensation of the ethereal, have become his signature.
Some critics dismiss photography as a fine art. Araman disagrees with such criticism. “Photography is about making good visuals. In fine arts, it’s acceptable to manipulate the image; a collage of mixed media art is an artistic thought. It’s not about what tools you use. So as an artist, photography is one medium which you could use. The concept of the picture is the art. The selection of colors for your composition is a consideration for example, and therefore is art. One makes artistic choices in the production of the image.
To Araman, the production aspect of the photo shoot is what he enjoys most. “I’d shoot something styled wonderfully . I appreciate good art so I take pictures of it whether it’s a dress or interior or nicely styled artichokes.
“The shoots are a highly creative process, and I seek interesting stylists to work with, says Araman.
Interesting photos only result “when things fall together, when people working together form a good synergy and things climax and ideas start to flow and the result is amazing images. It doesn’t happen at every shoot, maybe one out of every 20. But that is the nature of the business. Things have to come together, you can’t force them.
He also says that he enjoys the “unpredictable nature of the job.
“Hired for EMAAR once, I was asked to photograph an aerial view of their construction site and was dangling and strapped from a helicopter. I was suspended from heights no one has experienced before, and what an adrenalin rush.
His other assignments took him to “exotic places such as Namibia and gave him “exciting backstage moments.
“Once, I was in a basket hanging from a crane shooting an oil rig, it was intense. I get to do things that people normally don’t get to do, he says with a smile.
On working with models, one wonders if photographers are privy to backstage glamor.
“No not at all. We have fun on sets and models can be quite fun in their behavior at the shoots when prompted, but there are expectations everyone has to meet. He explains the tight schedules they work on, and the responsibilities shouldered by all from makeup artists and hair stylists to models and photographers.
For Araman, creativity is the best part of fashion photography. “You can play around with everything as you create the visual as you would a dream. I don’t do glamor photography such as swim suit covers. It lacks a creative element which I always aspire to attain in my images.
Yet his most interesting work is a series of eight images under the theme of the influence of world superpowers on a global scale. Exhibited in different international festivals, the pictures carry complex metaphors commenting and critiquing current political events both locally and internationally. They evoke a sense of the ongoing injustice.
A triptych of images highlights the perennial Israeli Palestinian conflict. Araman uses one model in each image styled differently to represent different subjects.
Entitled “Milk and Honey, a triptych in the series plays on the symbolism of humiliation of the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israelis. One image is of a Palestinian man having milk poured on his face by an Israeli, carrying the innuendos of sexual humiliation. The Palestinian soldier holds back the honey, refusing to offer it to the Israeli, a metaphor of Palestine refusing to surrender its blessings, and Araman is suggesting that Israel will never reap the full blessings of the Holy Land.
“I can’t be blind to what’s happening. We get affected simply by living in the region. There is a personal and emotional involvement in the ongoing events.
As a seven-year-old living in Lebanon, Araman was forced to flee with his Lebanese father and Egyptian mother to Alexandria via cargo ship to escape the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Such aggression is etched into Araman’s memory. “Yet if this traumatic event didn’t happen to me, I’d still be caught up in this, he adds.
The politics and art of his conceptual images have led many galleries to refuse to showcase his controversial work, but Araman’s talents are appreciated by many others.
“It makes people remember me when they see such contentious work.
Commercial photographers shy away from such topics, but few people cross over like I do. Yet I think the images will carry their metaphors for many years to come.
