campfire : everyday life in tahrir square

i raise my eyes to the lord | cairo advertising billboard

man supporting tree | khan el-khalili market, early evening

tea time

A young Egyptian man prepares tea at his pavement stall for customers promenading along the Nile Corniche, Cairo.

morning

metro canvas / urban glance | sadat metro station entrance, cairo

man

it’s been some time now since i’ve left egypt.

i was editing some work today and found this. this one. this photo.

i think back to the night of the one year anniversary of the egyptian revolution and wonder about that place. that slice of time, that moment where there was the hope that perhaps something still might change. that a young man could get up and spit his words and have the crowd listen. like the revolutionaries could defeat the deep state.

and i’ve been following the news, listening, reading. seeing the same images. wondering, wondering, wondering.

and below, the city

grave mistake

dead centre

second class

have you seen this one?

wolves, fucking

i found him, by chance, around the corner from his first mural, beginning work on his second.

do you want to see something secret?

of course.

obscured from the street, the recess smelt of piss and shit. a convenient place, it seemed, to relieve oneself.

the painting was of two wolves fucking, their tongues extended with pleasure. 

this, this. this is the secret.

this is sadism. these are our problems, this is the reality that the government wants to hide. they show one picture, but its not like that. if you know, if you open your eyes, if you understand, then it is no secret.

and with that, i knelt, and recorded it in light. 

because that which is hidden is easily found.

–

hattip to alaa, whose work is mind-bending.

quarters

in graff - the maspero building, the home of the egyptian state radio and television broadcast networks, and the word ‘liars.’