campfire : everyday life in tahrir square

stare xv

this portrait was the result of a very lengthy discussion about this man’s experience of the 2011 egyptian revolution. i tried to capture some of the complexities of these stories in an earlier post, this demolished room

egypt has been on my mind

catch those fish

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.

event horizon

ferry to sudan, lake nasser. goodbye egypt, goodbye

cash in hand

–

bonus points for locating the tourist policeman with the cash in his hand

hells yeah elephantine

third class 

el sultan, abandoned theatre complex, alexandria

so did anything happen here during the revolution?

no, not really. i got drunk the night before and was still drunk in the morning when my friends woke me to tell me the news. that mubarak had stood down.

what did you do?

i ran out into the main square screaming obscenities against the government, but everyone told me to go back inside. 

and?

that was it. except that night, a crowd gathered outside one man’s house and they demolished the front of the house.

the front of his house?

the council had wanted to widen a particular road for a very long time, and all the other houses had agreed, so everyone had demolished the front of their own homes. except one man, he wouldn’t agree. 

that night everyone came and demolished the front of the house for him. and now the road is wider. 

that’s what happened here during the revolution.

–

see this, this demolished room? this room we are sitting in?

yes.

the muslims came at night and destroyed it, during the night of the revolution.

why did they destroy it?

they destroyed it because i am the only christian man in this town, and they want me and my family to leave. they thought i wanted to build a church, but i don’t. they thought that they could scare me.

are you scared?

only from god. they don’t scare me, and i won’t leave.

and now, what will you do?

now? 

now.

now, i sell cigarettes from this room.

this demolished room.