How Architects Reframe Cairo Through Photography at Photopia

Architects are educated to assume spatially. At Photopia, this architectural gaze is curated to bridge the hole between the buildings we inhabit and the tales we inform about them.

This intersection of design and pictures is the core of the skilled discourse discovered on the ecosystem supplied by Photopia, a Cairo-based college, studio and gallery centered on elevating pictures throughout the nation.

To discover this overlap, we sat down with two figures who converse the languages of each design and pictures fluently: Karim El Hayawan and Nelly El Sharkawy. For them, pictures is a approach of dissecting the visible logic of a metropolis. Their architectural background shapes the whole lot from the best way they body a facade to the small print they isolate, shifting buildings from static objects to supplies for storytelling.

It is that this particular “designer-to-designer” language that Photopia seeks to curate. According to Marwa Abo Leila, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Photopia, “The work is curated based on themes, photography styles, topics or by photographer to make it easier for people to find what they are looking for.” This curation is strategic; it creates an immersive expertise the place different designers can discover visible work that matches their very own artistic strategy, ultimately constructing whole inside areas round these photographic narratives.

Architects are taught to grasp the third dimension. They assume in volumes, flooring plans and structural depth. But for El Hayawan, the true problem started when he determined to throw all of that away. “I discovered that all the photography I do after graduating as an architect is two-dimensional, not three-dimensional,” El Hayawan tells SceneHome. What began as an intuition later grew to become a acutely aware riot towards the logic of his architectural coaching itself. “I know how to draw in 3D and I will be able to photograph it well and adjust its proportions because I already know how to draw it, so I always felt that I wanted to photograph something that is the opposite of what I do.”

Rather than chasing dramatic views or spatial depth, Karim El Hayawan grew to become obsessive about photographing buildings head-on, flattening them into surfaces the place smaller particulars start to take over. “The building is flat,” he explains. “The shadow and what is inside the window on the other side tells the story.” His photos are about what unfolds on the floor: a passing determine, an surprising object, or a wierd alignment of shadows and textures.

This fixation on flatness is just not purely aesthetic. It can be deeply tied to his curiosity in displacement, surreality, and the unwritten logic of cities. El Hayawan is drawn to moments that really feel barely “off”: a chair hanging from a ceiling, 5 individuals balancing on a bike, or objects occupying areas they had been by no means meant to occupy. For him, pictures turns into a approach of questioning who decides what’s regular within the city atmosphere and whose perspective defines order.

For Nelly El Sharkawy, the connection between structure and pictures unfolded in the wrong way. Photography entered her life lengthy earlier than structure college did. What started with an previous movie digicam and self-portraits, slowly developed right into a a lot bigger investigation into cities, buildings, and visible reminiscence.

“Architecture completely changed the way I photograph and the way I look at everything,” she says. Her consideration shifted away from photographing individuals and towards photographing the constructed atmosphere itself. But not like standard architectural photographers, El Sharkawy was not taken with documenting buildings as they’re. She wished to reconstruct them.

This impulse ultimately changed into ‘Le Carnaval’, an ongoing challenge she started in 2017 as a approach of understanding Cairo’s architectural id. At the time, she felt misplaced inside structure college, uncertain of what certified as “good” structure or what sort of areas she was personally drawn to. Her response was radical documentation. “I decided to photograph all the buildings that I would see on my way, regardless of whether I like them or not,” she explains.

She divided Cairo district by district, photographing the whole lot earlier than digitally collaging fragments collectively into fictional constructions that in some way nonetheless seize the emotional reality of every neighbourhood. “When you look at it for example, you should feel that you see Zamalek combined in all its styles, in all its ways,” she says.

For El Sharkawy, the {photograph} itself isn’t the ultimate paintings. Instead, it features as uncooked materials for reconstruction. Collage grew to become her approach of actively constructing a picture somewhat than merely capturing one. What makes her work notably placing is that the manipulations are virtually invisible. She fastidiously assembles fully new architectural realities utilizing solely her personal images, whereas making the ultimate picture seem plausible sufficient to exist. “I like that whoever sees it thinks that this composition actually exists,” she says, “but then they ask themselves, where is this building?”

While their particular person practices supply distinctive viewpoints, they discover a frequent floor locally Photopia gives. “Photopia is a support system that gives you freedom to express yourself in different ways, whether through documentary, a conceptual story, or architecture,” El Hayawan says. “Whenever there’s image making, they’re ready to talk about it and support it.”

“We curate photography mainly from some of the most prominent photographers in Egypt, both established artists and emerging talents,” Abo Leila provides. “Through these connections, we’ve brought together a wide network of photographers offering prints that are truly worth owning.” By bridging the hole between the buildings we inhabit and the tales we inform about them, Photopia seeks to maintain a cycle the place the architect’s gaze is just not solely seen, however skilled as soon as once more.