Colloquial

Walking the streets of Cairo over four years with my camera in hand was parallel to me taking colloquial Arabic lessons, using photography to come to certain understandings about a place. Cairo is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world; some even say it is the cradle of civilization. These days it is a huge sprawling mass of a city, with an immense population and heavy pollution. However although it can be jilting on the senses, it can also be graceful, it is a place that makes you feel alive, a city that is always proud of whom she is, she is a reminder of the past, now she is battling with the future as shopping centers and western coffee shops spring up in the midst of it all.

However Cairo is not a place that re-invents itself, it is a city that is proud of her history, recognizes the importance of her heritage, is not totally obsessed by western ideas of progressions and upgrades. She is more like someone’s old and well loved carpet that just has new bits added to it at a pace it feels comfortable with. It is however a place along with the rest of the region that is suffering today from misrepresentations from the media and press, the very fact it is a Muslim country makes some people shudder there are now mountains of ignorance about Islam throughout the rest of the world. Cairo, in fact I would have to say, is certainly one of the safest places that I have ever had the pleasure to live in, I have only been greeted by warmth and friendliness, of course it has its problems like every city throughout the world, but in other places in the world would a stranger come and pick you up when you fell down a hole? Would a stranger offer you a cup of tea with the intentions of nothing other than a chat? I feel it is so important for the rest of the world to see this work, to see the everyday Cairo, to see the people who cement the city together, people like the postman, the waiter, to give importance to the rest of the space around them, that everything is vital within the image.

This work is a celebration of all that I found within a city I found inspiring. Almost that the city became my teacher, a teacher of different smells, cultures and differences, but it taught me to become excited about those differences and tolerant. Western culture seems to have a great belief that its way of society is the only way, is it not the only path, but is it even the right way? This is my vision of Cairo, my placement between the bricks and gaps, and this is my excitement of the place, a concentration on the everyday activities of life within the great and historical place called Cairo.