POV: Cairo Report

©Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
I'm frequently asked to organize and lead photo~expeditions to Egypt (or more specifically to Cairo), and I've always resisted the temptation. People view this as strange and have difficulty understanding the reasons. After all, I was born in Cairo, I speak the language (almost a colloquially as its residents) and perfectly understand the culture.

My reasons for my resistance are many, but here's a few I can share on this blog.

1. I'm a travel-documentary photographer, and my primary interests for my photo expeditions revolve around photographing esoteric but authentic cultural and religious rituals and ceremonies. My trips are "event-specific" such as my recent photo~expedition to Kerala for the Theyyam rituals or my forthcoming trip to Morocco to photograph the Gnawa festival. These are highly colorful events, with powerful visual aesthetics. The visual aesthetics of authentic festivals in Egypt are not as colorful nor as "eye-candy" appealing. I don't mean to imply that these are not interesting; quite the opposite is true but they're usually monochromatic and much less flamboyant than in Asia as an example. Somewhat facetiously (and perhaps a bit unfairly) I described Cairo as being beige on beige on beige with hints of beige.

The ceremonies or rituals aimed at the touristic market in Egypt are contrived, and while these are designed to be colorful and attractive, I find their lack of authenticity to be unappealing. Yes, there are a few authentic and visually interesting religious festivals in Egypt but here's where my second point kicks in.

2. Egyptian bureaucracy (which is stifling and pervasive here) is an enormous turn-off for me. I'll be charitable and just say that fixers need fixers in Egypt to be able to fix anything. Nothing gets done in a timely fashion or efficiently unless one lubricates the system. Tipping is no longer an act of appreciation for good service, but is now an entitlement. Bait and switch in the tourist industry is frequently the norm, whether in terms of guides, transport or itineraries.

The success of my photo~expeditions is because I'm confident of the supporting infrastructure I've chosen to use...whether guides, fixers, agents, vehicular transport, hotels and so forth. In Egypt, unless I were able to use the people who are close to me (but they're not in the tourism industry) to set up my trips, I have no confidence that they would go as well as I would want and expect them to be. It's difficult to find kinder people than the Egyptians, but that characteristic is not sufficient to overlook the host of downsides.

I wish I could say otherwise, but Egypt will not appear as a destination for my photo expeditions.

James Nachtwey: Red Cross in Afghanistan

James Nachtwey photographed Alberto Cairo who heads the orthopedic rehabilitation program of the International Committee of the Red Cross, a job dedicated to helping disabled Afghans live normally again by equipping them with artificial legs and arms.
Cairo, once a debonair lawyer in his native Turin, Italy, is almost certainly the most celebrated Western relief official in Afghanistan, at least among Afghans.

CNN brings us a SoundSlides photo-essay on Alberto Cairo and the ICRC in Afghanistan.

Cairo Report: Zekr at Manawat

©Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
It happened. Driven by Abdel Fattah ("Kojak") and accompanied by Badawi, then meeting with Haj Zakaria and Badawi's father at 11:00 pm, I was welcomed to an authentic zikr ceremony held at the village of Manawat. This is certainly not a venue for the faint-hearted or for foreigners (assuming they would even find the village). The ceremony starts after the night prayer and goes well into the dawn hours. I would go beyond describing the performance as totally authentic. It's a rural ceremony performed by villagers for villagers who follow a certain tariqah or Sufi way. The performance was held in a small alley, lit by a combination of fluorescent and dangling bulbs. The attendees, men and women, sat on straw carpets, and lined the walls of the alley smoking sheeshas or cigarettes.

As I wrote earlier, zikr is a devotional performance which includes the repetition of the names of Allah, supplications and sections of the Qur'an.

The music and chanting were mind-blowing. Very similar to the traditional rural songs called mawwal, the rhythm starts slow and progressively gets quicker while the attendees sway to its tempo, until they reach a state of trance. Not the easiest of photo shoots because of the confined space, mixed light sources and blaring loudspeakers, but I was transfixed by the authenticity of the event. Unfortunately, the monochrome of Egyptian traditional dress (browns, white and black) is not visually magnetic...but that's how it is.

Once I'm back in New York, I'll edit my photographs and review the quality of the audio recordings and determine whether a multimedia slideshow can be produced. In the meantime, here's one that caught my eye from last night.

Antonio Mari: The Rajasthan Diaries

Antonio Mari is a Brazilian journalist and photographer based in New York City, specializing in ethnographic subject matter--documenting peoples and cultures outside the mainstream of western civilization. He emailed me attaching the above slideshow of Rajasthani portraits and scenes for inclusion on the blog.

This is an opportune post as I'm currently preparing details for my first photo~expedition of 2010, and Antonio's slideshow is a hint as to where I hope to be heading. There are a number of annual events in the area that beg to be photographed, and no, it's not the over-hyped over-covered Pushkar Fair.

Antonio's work is on the Geo Zoom Website . I've prviously posted Antonio's work on the Yanomami on this blog.

Cairo Report: Madh in Old Cairo

©Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
Here's another of my photographs of the band at Monday's Sufi madh at the shrine of Sayyidah Fatimah Al Nabawiyya. The fellow on the left in his white galabeya is called the muallem or the leader of the band, while the other is called el-madah.

I'm hoping to attend a real zikr ceremony late tonight in one of the villages surrounding Cairo. Naturally, I'll be accompanied by the indispensable Badawi and Kojak, the driver. And even more naturally, it's incha allah.

Note: I don't have Photoshop installed on my Acer netbook (one of the disadvantages of going minimalist) so I'm using Gimp, the free and lightweight image editing program which I'm not familiar with...perhaps a reason for the images being either too soft or oversharpened.

Shopping Center

Fashion Shopping Tour can be found in the Pajajaran street bogor, and if you want to buy shoes or bags located along Jl. Raya Bogor Katulampa, Also can be found various mall and plaza such as Botany Square, Bogor Trade Mall, Ekalokasari Plaza, Pangrango Plaza, Plaza Jambu Dua etc..

PR: wait... I: wait... L: wait... LD: wait... I: wait... wait... Rank: wait... Traffic: wait... Price: wait... C: wait...

Relaxed in Restaurant Bogor with Fishing

Bogor's local specialities include pickles (asinan) and grilled bean sprouts (tauge goreng).

* Fishing Valley, Located on a valley with natural surroundings, serves Fresh Traditional Indonesian / Sundanese cuisine, specializing on Freshly Grilled Fish. Most popular is the Spicy Grilled Gouramy (Gurame Bakar Pedas) accompanied with Fresh Coconut Drink (Es Kelapa Muda). Dine on one of the Gazebos above the ponds "Lesehan" style. www.fishingvalley.net

* De Daunan, east side of Botanical Gardens. Formerly Cafe Botanicus, serves up a mix of Dutch and Indonesian favorites, with lazy ceiling fans and a breezy veranda on a small hill looking over the garden. The rijsstaffel set is popular if a bit pricy at Rp 45,000.

* Sotomie Ciseeng. Jl. Suryakencana No. 302. A type of noodle with beef tendons and deep fried chives.

* Ngohiong, sold along Jl. Suryakencana. An originally Chinese dish (五香 wǔxiāng) made from flour and scraps of pork, deep fried and then served with tofu, fried potato wedges, a thick sweet sauce and pickles. Halal (non pork) version of the dish may also be available.

* Kedai Telapak, Gd. Alumni IPB Pelataran Parkir Pool DAMRI Jl. Raya Pajajaran No.54 Bogor, Located Next to Botani Square on west side of Pool DAMRI Parking Lot in Baranangsiang, phone : +62 251 8393 248

PR: wait... I: wait... L: wait... LD: wait... I: wait... wait... Rank: wait... Traffic: wait... Price: wait... C: wait...

Stuart Freedman: Kathakali

©Stuart Freedman-All Rights Reserved
Stuart Freedman is an English photographer, whose work was published in, amongst others, Life, Geo, Time, Der Spiegel, Newsweek and Paris Match covering stories from Albania to Afghanistan and from former Yugoslavia to Haiti. He was recognized in many awards such as Amnesty International (twice), Pictures of the Year, The World Sports Photo Award, The Royal Photographic Society and UNICEF, and was selected for the 1998 World Press Masterclass and for the Agfa Young Photojournalist of the Year.

Having returned from Kerala myself, I thought I'd feature his Kathakali work photographed at the Kerala Kalamandalam (the state academy of classical arts). The Kalamandalam was founded in the 1930’s to preserve the ancient forms of Keralan arts and dance of which Kathakali, a mute mixture of ballet and drama is the most well known.

I've already posted some of Stuart's work on Delhi's Shahidur Depot here.

Zikr At Fatimah Al-Nabawiyah Shrine

©Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
Well, it did happen. Driven in the rickety taxi expertly navigated by Abdel-Fattah (aka Kojak) in the grimy labyrinthine alleys of Old Cairo, and accompanied by Badawi and Haj Zakaria (an Imam by choice and a government employee by necessity), I arrived in reasonable good form at the shrine (and mosque) of Sayyidah Fatimah Al Nabawiyya just before the afternoon Muslim prayers. It is here, just outside the mosque, that a small Sufi zikr was scheduled to take place.

Sayyidah Fatima was one of the daughters of Imam Hussein, the martyred son of Ali (nephew of the Prophet Mohammad and revered by Shi'a Muslims), who is said to be the first to know of her father's martyrdom when a black crow soaked in the Imam's blood landed next to her. She is considered to be a saint by many in the local Sufi community.

The definition of zikr is that it's an Islamic practice and a devotional act which includes the repetition of the names of Allah, supplications and aphorisms and sections of the Qur'an. What I witnessed was a small manifestation of this practice, where a band of devotional musicians sang (rather than recited) homage to various saints such as Al Badawi, founder of the Badawiyyah Sufi order, among others.

A number of tiny street cafes offered tea to the spectators, while a few veiled women occasionally swayed to the tempo of the music. An elderly woman had to helped after she "swooned" from the exertion. I have no idea if it was caused by the exertion of having sucked on a water pipe for the better part of an hour, or by her entering a state of trance.

More a block party than a serious religious event, there was a sense of neighborhood fraternity amongst the attendees. I was viewed with amused curiosity, and treated with the Egyptian customary kindness. I realized that the event wasn't packed because it coincided with an important soccer match being televised and shown in various tea-houses. Religion is important, but it's often trumped by soccer.

I considered this as a precursor to other more important events, which I'm working on. Hopefully, there'll be more to come. However as I expected, it was monochromatic...and hence the black & white photograph of this post. The highlight of the performance was to hear my name being sung when I made a modest contribution to the band's "pension fund". I had my audio recorder on for a while, and the little I listened to so far is quite interesting.

Note: Technically-speaking, I was advised that what I saw is called Madh rather than Zikr. Madh is the giving of praise to various saints, which is exactly what this ceremony was about.

Albertina d'Urso: Bodies For Sale

Albertina D'Urso is an Italian documentary photographer. She published two books, "Bombay Slum" and "Lifezoom", and two collections "Respiro del Mondo 5, Afghanistan" and "Km 5072, Milano-Kabul No Stop," which received the Canon Young Photographers Award in 2007.

She traveled to over 70 countries and has a special interest in Tibetan culture. She has been photographing Tibetan refugees around the world since 2004. One of her newer photo essays is on Mumbai's prostitutes which are estimated to be 150,000. These women are brought in from various areas of India and Nepal.

posted by TTP's robotic assistant

Cairo Report

©Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
I'm planning to attend a genuine zikr ceremony this afternoon in a traditional (aka gritty) Old Cairo neighborhood called Darb Al Ahmar. A rickety taxi driven by a ricketier cab driver nicknamed Kojak (yes of course, he's totally bald) will take me to the place, where I am assured that I will have access to the ceremony.

This is not a performance for tourists but an authentic ceremony, where homage to God (or Allah) is given by men (occasionally women) by repeating certain chants, frequently accompanied by drumbeats. In terms of visuals, it may not be highly colorful nor exotic since the performers are just regular people who follow certain religious traditions. Nonetheless, trances are involved in the zikr ceremonies, and armed with both camera and audio recorder, it ought to be captivating.

A post-event report (if indeed it happens) will be posted on TTP. As they say around here: "Incha Allah".

Asia Without Borders Photo Contest

Asia Without Borders Photo Competition is organised by Asian Geographic, and sponsored by Canon, Jet Airways and Lowepro among others. The photo contest is open to special photographs from talented photographers that capture a striking image of Asia’s land, people, architecture or wildlife.

As in all and every photography contests, I strongly encourage all interested photographers to make sure they carefully read the contests' terms and conditions, especially since misunderstandings between organizers and contestants over terms, prizes and other issues sometimes occur.

posted by TTP's robotic assistant