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Black & White Portraits

Week Four in Egypt

Another week's almost gone by, and I can't believe I'm leaving Egypt a week from tomorrow. While I think I'll be ready to come home, I'm going to miss Egypt so much. One week isn't a whole lot of time left, and that's just now sinking in. Scary to think about!

Monday, we went downtown during out class time and shot a little bit. Some people had Arabic class that afternoon, but Annalise and I didn't, so we went to Bab Zuweyla to photograph some more. Bab Zuwayla itself is the gate to the south that used to contain Fatimid Cairo, but now it's used to refer to that area in general. Nearby, there's a tent market, where people sell cotton and make and weave different items - purses, murals, scarves, just about everything you can think of. It was pretty amazing to walk down the streets, but overwhelming at the same time. There was a market for food as well, with not just fruit and veggies, but live chickens, rabbits, and even ducks. The people there were very friendly and there was little hassle, mostly because it wasn't a tourist's market. We also got to stop by Abd el-Zaher, a book-binding shop that makes and binds every part of their books. Their work was beautiful, and I made a few purchases there, including a few gifts for people and a photo album for myself, which I'll use to scrapbook this trip when I return to the states.

Tuesday was relatively uneventful (we had class as normal) and Wednesday we went shooting again. We went back to Bab Zuwayla, but this time with Denis and Abduh there with us. We climbed up the two minarets at the Bab Zuwalya gates, and the view from the top was absolutely gorgeous. After climbing to the concourse level, there was a set of steep stone stairs leading to the top of the minaret, or so I thought. Turns out they stopped about 50 feet from the top and were replaced by a metal spiral staircase. The steps were no more than two inches thick at most, and there was at least a foot and a half's height difference between each. Oh, and they fanned out about 60 degrees away from one another. Scary as hell. Did I climb up anyway? Of course. Easily the best adrenaline rush I've had in a long time. At the top, there wasn't much to keep you from falling off the top - the wall around the highest concourse didn't rise past your knee, only about a foot away from the minaret itself (little room to walk, basically), and it happened to be pretty windy that morning. One slip and things wouldn't have ended well. Totally worth it though - the view was absolutely incredible.

We walked back through the tent market, but since it was earlier in the morning, things were still pretty quiet. Soon enough though, the market became a lot busier, with people opening their shops and driving through to make their deliveries. The smell wasn't as pungent, but walking through past the open, fly-covered meat wasn't exactly the best scent in the world. The people were once again extremely friendly, and I got some more great pictures. That afternoon, we had another Arabic class with Hasnaa (who's awesome, by the way). We managed to have fun and learn a few things, although whether or not we'll retain any of it is a different matter entirely. The guys at the front desk of Flamenco are still trying to teach me Arabic, with slight success. My vocab is expanding, but I'm sure my accent is terrible.

Today we visited the Citadel, perhaps one of Cairo's largest tourist hotspots. The Saladin Citadel is almost a thousand years old and is absolutely beautiful. I could provide more details about its history, but instead I'll just attach the link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Citadel). We also went to the military museum, which Robbie would have loved. There wasn't much about the pharaonic times, and there was only a little information about the Malmuks and Ottomans, but Egypt's more recent military history (seventeenth century onward, basically) was well-chronicled.

Tomorrow, we're going to Alexandria, and Saturday we're going to the Sakara pyramids. I'll post more about those this weekend - both should be a great trip. Tonight we have yet another 21st birthday to celebrate (Doug's this time). After a week of class, I'm sure it'll be an eventful night.

As the semester draws to a close, I've been thinking more and more about what direction I want to move in with my final project. I love some of the pictures I have of people, and I want to keep shooting in black and white. So I think my final book will be black and white shots, with an emphasis on portraits. Following this post are a few of the pictures I've taken of people this week.

Sunset over Cairo - nothing like it

Look mom, I'm making Egyptian friends!

Walking up to the top of the park

The sky after sundown

A side street in the khan

The minaret in the mosque of Ibn Tulun that we climbed

Inside the mosque of Ibn Tulun

The ridiculous-looking slippers we had to wear over our shoes

I love the buildings here

More creepy-as-hell mannequins

Part of a cracked mural

An abandoned house in Zamalek

The sunset over Cairo from the boat

Some of the lights on the boat

The AUC professor's son in his cowboy gear

AUC Dialogue, Islamic Cairo, Arab League, and the Giza Zoo

It's been a few days, so I guess it's about time for me to post another update. This past weekend has been pretty busy, but I've had plenty of time to relax too. Thursday night we had a dialogue with some students from American University in Cairo (AUC) - most of them seemed pretty friendly and were easy to talk to. They were also extremely composed, while we, um, weren't. If there wasn't a stereotype in their mind about Americans before, there certainly is now.

Friday, I got to sleep until 9:30 (which is quite the treat when you're used to waking up around 7:30 during the week for class). Around noon, a group of six of us went to Tabasco for lunch. They have traditional Egyptian food, like shawarma platters, and some more American food too. I ended up getting ravioli in cream sauce, which was amazing. It was a much-welcome taste of home. I have been somewhat experimental with the food here - I even tried pigeon at a restaurant we went to last week! But there have been plenty of times when all I really want is my delicious American food back. After getting lunch, Tim and I went downtown for a while. We were only there for about a half an hour, but we got some interesting photos and met some interesting people too. Apparently, people love Americans here - yet another guy started a conversation with the two of us, told us about his restaurant/bar down the street, and told us the first round would be on him, which we politely declined.

Saturday, we went on our tour of Islamic Cairo. We stopped at the mosque of Ibn Tulun and the mosque of Sultan Hassan, and after we walked through the khan (the market) and saw a few sites there. The mosque of Ibn Tulun is one of the oldest in the world and the first mosque built in Africa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosque_of_Ibn_Tulun). The mosque of Sultan Hassan has its own history as well, and underwent a number of restorations when President Obama visited in June of 2009 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosque-Madrassa_of_Sultan_Hassan). Fun fact: the mosque of Ibn Tulun is featured on the 5LE note, and that of Sultan Hassan is featured on the Egyptian 100LE note. Who knew?

That night, we went to Al-Azhar Park. I was expecting more sand and little vegetation, but the park was absolutely gorgeous. There was plenty of grass, lots of trees, and even fountains. There was a path that lead to the top of the park, which overlooked all of Cairo. We got to the park just as the sun was going down, and we got to watch the sun set over Cairo. Just as it was almost out of view, the call to prayer started. As I'd mentioned before, there is a call to prayer five times a day, which they chant and play from speakers all over the city (they do this in Aswan and Luxor too, not just Cairo). From our spot overlooking the city, you could hear multiple calls at once, all at different parts of the prayer, and it was difficult to hear any one specific chant. I wouldn't consider myself a spiritual person by any means, but something about watching the sun go down over the city as the call to prayer rang out made me feel so calm. I felt at peace with things and at peace with myself, which is something I can't say I've felt in a very long time. The moon was out even before the sun had gone down, and you could see a few stars on the horizon even as the sun was still visible. I want to go back at some point before this trip is over, but I know how I felt that night isn't something I could ever replicate.

This morning, we visited the Arab League. We had a panel discussion for about an hour and a half, which was surprisingly engaging. When we went to the U.S. Embassy, the man speaking with us beat around the bush quite a bit and seemed to have a somewhat lackluster personality, making for a somewhat dull visit. The man we spoke with at the Arab League, however, was extremely forthcoming and engaging. He was extremely insightful and poised, and he had facts to back everything up. My high school government teacher, Mr. Benson, would have loved him.

Afterwards, while the fluid mechanics kids had class, we went to the Giza zoo. Anyone who knows me knows I love zoos, but this was a far cry from an American zoo. The animals were kept in pretty small cages, and they were surrounded by visitors (mostly kids, who wanted to feed the animals). Most of the zookeepers had long wooden sticks they would stick vegetables on and hand to the kids, which the kids would then feed the animals with. There was little monitoring of the animals though - at one point, we watched as a boy handed a bottle of coke through the bars to a chimpanzee. The lions were probably in the worst shape though - we saw two that were not open to the public, kept in a cage no more than a few hundred square feet big, hopefully only being kept there temporarily. We all got pictures in front of the cage, and I was only inches away from a live, roaring, extremely large lion. After that, I had my picture taken with one of the cubs - I was squatting beside it as the man snapped the picture. For only 20LE (about $4) and a little bit of baksheesh (the word for tip money, which used by Americans to exploit just about any official), I got a picture beside the cub. The camera he used was at least 40 years old and the print came out a little washed out, but overall, it was worth the little bit of money I spent. I felt so bad for the lion cub, which was completely drugged out. It was bigger than I was expecting - about the size of a large dog - and it was more soft and cuddly than I would have thought (again, probably because it was so heavily sedated).

Tomorrow, we're spending some time downtown, and I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures to post then too. For now, here are some pictures from the past few days.

Colors

So as I'd mentioned, this week, Rob's given us all individual assignments to work on. He gave us projects that he thought would challenge us a bit. Mine was color. It sounds a lot easier than it actually is. I've already posted some pictures I've taken for the assignment, so feel free to check them out. Our crit is tomorrow, so hopefully everyone else likes them too. Color is kind of a foreign thing for me to focus on, but as a whole, I actually enjoyed the challenge.

Shooting in Cairo has become a bit more challenging than I thought. Shooting on Zamalek, the island we're staying on, has been fine, but there's only so much to photograph there. We've been told not to shoot in the neighborhood around our classroom anymore, since apparently some of the locals have taken notice and aren't okay with it. I can understand that there are some people that aren't okay with being photographed, but we've used the utmost discretion and respect when photographing our subjects. Anyone that shows the slightest sign they don't want to be photographed, we leave alone. What upsets me about the situation is mostly the way we were approached. Our trip's coordinator made it seem like we were being distasteful and disrespectful towards the people, and she was somewhat condescending in the way she approached us. She also doesn't understand much about photography or its ethics. No matter where you shoot, someone's going to be bothered or offended. All we can do is be as respectful as possible. It's somewhat impossible, though, to know about every instance where we're offending someone. But the fact of the matter is that we're here to take a class in photography, and we need material to shoot. We've been told we can take the vans elsewhere during class, but no matter where we go, we're going to offend someone at some point. I guess the idea behind that is that if we offend someone, there won't be direct feedback. I guess my frustration comes from people having a lack of understanding of photography as a whole and how we, as photographers, have been behaving. I guess the bright side is that it'll be nice to be able to take the vans and spend some time in class shooting.

Here's another photo of a cat, since Rob loves cats.

Some more of my color project photos

Mini Assignment: Colors

This week, Rob gave us individual assignments that he thought would provide a bit of a challenge for us. Mine was to shoot colors (since I usually prefer black and white stills, it was actually a bit of a challenge for me to make color the focus of my work. Here are some of the photos I took for this week's assignment.

Yesterday in class, we went out for a little while to shoot some photos. It happened to be lunch break for a local elementary school, and when they saw us, they all wanted their photos taken. In fact, some kids were actually fighting over us.

The picture below is of a boy and his father, not one of the kids at school.

As promised, here are some photos from the X-Games Red Bull Fighters event we went to.

Clancy and I in front of the pyramids!

One of the felucca workers

A tire on the side of the felucca

A father holding his daughter up to see the riders

Silhouette of a girl in front of the pyramids at sunset

Khamseh Sifr Thamaneya

The past few days have all kind of meshed together. It's weird, but I've found I'm slowly beginning to have no concept of time. Since my phone doesn't work internationally, I can't even get the time on my cell phone, so apart from my computer, I've really had no sense of time. While it's somewhat relaxing to not constantly be worried about time, it's stressful to rely on morning wake-up calls (which don't always come) and other people (who aren't always reliable).

The hotel personnel at the front desk know us all by room number; when we approach the front desk to get our key, they hand us our key without even asking what room we're in. One of them in particular, Ashmat, is trying to teach me how to say '508' in Arabic. I must be so disappointing, because every time I approach the desk for my key, I can't even remember the first part of the number. So today, I asked him to spell it out for me on a piece of paper so I can learn it. He spelled it out in Arabic. Great. So after listening to him sound it out a few times, I wrote down what I thought I was hearing. After checking online, the English pronunciation is something like "khamseh (five) sifr (zero) thamaneya (eight)". I've promised to learn it, so I need to remember it. Arabic class starts on Wednesday, and so far my Arabic is absolutely terrible, so I'm hoping I can at least learn some survival phrases.

There's a bagel shop about ten minutes away from the hotel called Munch & Bagel. I went there with my friend Zach the other day after Kelly and Clancy, two of the girls in my photo class, happened to find it and tell us about it. It's pretty Americanized - the people making your food even wear gloves! The owner was really nice and talked to us while we were waiting for our food. Apparently his wife, who's Polish, makes all of the bagels from scratch. Since I'm an absolute bagel fiend when I'm back home, it's been difficult for me to not have a bagel every day. Needless to say, I'll be stopping by there on a fairly regular basis.

On Friday night, we went to an X-Games motocross exhibition, held in front of the pyramids. We got there a few hours before the event started, so we got to watch the sun go down behind the pyramids and the sphinx. When it got darker out, the lights beneath the pyramids came on, and they were lit below, as was the sphinx. Words can't describe how surreal the whole experience was - standing beside the pyramids, watching guys do absolutely ridiculous stunts on motorbikes. The show itself was pretty neat, but it was all formatted the same - rider approaches ramp, rider goes up ramp, rider does sick jump. Cool, but it got old after a while. It was more the atmosphere and the people that made the night memorable. I'll try to post pictures fairly soon.

Yesterday we went on a tour of Coptic Cairo. We saw a number of churches and buildings, including St. Barbara's Church, St. Sergis Church, St. George Church, and the Hanging Church. St. George's church was easily my favorite - it used one of the two Roman towers used in the fortress of Babylon as its foundation. It was circular, which apparently is an odd shape for a church, and a Greek Orthodox church in particular. It was perched above most of Coptic Cairo, and off in the distance, you could see other parts of the city as well. The stained glass windows inside the church were beautiful too.

After visiting Coptic Cairo, we went to Abdu's house for lunch. Abdu is one of Professor Sullivan's longtime friends here, and each year he's nice enough to host the group of dialogue students at his house for dinner. His wife and daughter spent days making food for the 40+ students here and it was absolutely delicious - turkey, rice, cheese-stuffed pastries, eggplant... so much amazing food! Abdu has also been helping us coordinate a lot of our trips and bus rides, which he does all as a favor. Basically, he's the man.

That night, we went out on a felucca ride at sunset. Getting there was quite the adventure. As I'd mentioned, it's really hard to have a sense of time here, and we're never really given exact times for when to meet for things. I thought we were meeting at 6:30 for the vans, but apparently we met at 6:15 instead. So when I got to the lobby at 6:20, only two minutes after my roommate went downstairs, the vans had left. Since I don't have a working cell phone in Cairo, I went to my friend Kristine's room and tried to call Rob. Her phone can text but not call, so took the phone number, went downstairs to the lobby, and asked to use their phone. I finally got in touch with Rob, and at that point the vans were already at the docks. They were still waiting for a second felucca, so I had a small window of time to get there before the boats went out. I was told they were across from the Four Seasons, so I grabbed a cab and headed over. My cab driver didn't speak a word of English, and since there are apparently two different Four Seasons hotels in Cairo, it was pretty interesting trying to communicate where I was going.

When I arrived at the Four Seasons, I had no idea still where everyone else was. The vans were nowhere in sight, and neither were any of the other students. I started walking towards the Nile and went down to the first dock - no luck. No one on the second dock either. Thankfully, third one was the charm, and I saw everyone waiting for boats. Half the students were already on one boat, and the second half were waiting for the other felucca to dock to get on it. I made it over to a completely unfamiliar part of town with only minutes to spare, in Cairo traffic, without a cell phone, with a cab driver that spoke only Arabic. I'm actually quite proud of myself for getting there at all.

All the same, I'm pretty hurt no one noticed I was missing when the vans left from the hotel. The felucca ride was something I'd been looking forward to since getting here, and I'd been talking about it with people too, so it's not like anyone should have thought i was opting out. Everyone here has been splitting up into cliques, and I'm not really terribly close with anyone here. Everyone has their one or two people they hang out with most of the time, and I just don't. My roommate on the trip is here with her roommate from back home, so they always go out and never really think to ask me to join. I really don't know why they didn't choose to room together during the trip, since they more or less do everything together anyway. Just in general, I don't feel like I'm really close with anyone here, and at times it just sucks.

I'll try to post pictures from the past few days soon - there aren't many, but once I've edited them I'll post a few.

First day of classes and more

Now that we're back in Cairo, it's time to get some work done. Classes started yesterday; we had class from 9 to 1, which we'll have from Monday to Thursday for the rest of our time here. We spent our first class talking about the structure of the course for the semester as well as web site design and a few other logistical things. Class today was spent editing our photos and putting together a slideshow to present for a brief critique. After class today, we met with Denis at Cafe Noir to discuss the first book we had to read, "The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit".

Our long-term goal for the semester is to put together a book of our work in Egypt. We're supposed to find something to focus on, and Rob gave us a list of topics and suggestions (abstraction, architecture, color, similarities between cultures, etc.) I really want to focus on portrait work, kids in particular. I haven't done much with portraits before, but I feel like when they're done well, they're fascinating to look at. You can tell so much about a person through a great picture. The kids here are so candid and honest, so they're wonderful to photograph.

Last night was Matt (one of the fluid mechanics guys)'s 21st birthday, so of course, we went out again. We went to the Marriott and had a few drinks. As a whole, the night was pretty fun, but that's when the homesickness really hit me. When we first got in Cairo, I was somewhat homesick, but last night I just broke down. Thanks to some words of wisdom from Rob and some amazing people I'm on the dialogue with, I was just fine, but I certainly had my moment. I only wish it hadn't been so public - I know being homesick is nothing to be embarrassed about, but I don't like people seeing me cry.

Anyway, we have a free day tomorrow, so I think I'll sleep in a bit (I've gotten up at 7am or earlier every day this week) and then maybe head to the markets to take some photos. The weather here in Cairo is so much nicer - it's still hot, but it's definitely tolerable. In the evenings, there's even a slight breeze, which makes walking around Zamalek enjoyable. There are lots of hidden gems within the city - coffee shops, small eateries, and my personal favorite, the falafel shop right down the street from the Flamenco.

I don't have many new pictures to post, but as soon as I have some more, I'll put them up. Tomorrow we're going to the X-Games event I'd mentioned in my previous post, so that should provide plenty to photograph!

Oh, and Rob would like me to mention he's afraid of sharting.

Carving a vase from basalt at the alabaster factory

Some more hieroglyphics on a statue

Quite possibly my favorite photo I've ever taken

Giant feet!

Yet another stray dog, this one at Karnak Temple