WE: Cairo
WE: Cairo, 2019
The whole thing started when I saw a publicationtitled“We:Vancouver.” It was about an exhibition that took place in Vancouver in 2011. I was moved by the title and decided to do something parallel about Cairo but not as an art exhibition publication nor a cultural event manifestation, more of an exploration into the collective memory of a generation living now in Cairo.
In this publication, I sent a unified audio message to 13 different people, living with completely different backgrounds, and all considering Cairo as their hometown. The message was very neutral and unified and asked them to take photos of Cairo from their point of view using their mobile phone cameras. The photos would not try to show the beauty of Cairo or its ugliness, they are not tourist photos. The images could be linked to their memory about their city and their daily life in Cairo, as they drive to work or go to their favorite café or even the neighborhood where they live. Photographs of places they think are only found in Cairo and once they see them, they will immediately feel they are in their home.
Over three months, I receive hundreds of photos and I went through all of them trying to find connections between the photos and to my impression of Cairo. It was a really exciting journey to discover my own city through other people's eyes and through the many texts I read about Cairo. I thought about how to design the book and how to find relations between the pictures, the text, and the design. Many ideas about how to be neutral, fair, and honest with the material and the effort that people trust me with.
I noticed, for example, that despite the exoticism of the city of Cairo and its privacy, many photographers did not pay attention to the oddity of the city. Most of the pictures poetically linked to personal memories, dreams, and intimacy.
This publication was made under the supervision of Leila Sujir, Concordia University, FALL 2019