Cairo Event:
In tribute to the history of studio photographic practice in Egypt: On Photography, at Studio Viennoise
14 November - 16 December 2012
(Soft Opening: 14 November at 7 pm. Closing event, “Finissage”: 16 December at 6 pm.)
7 Champollion Street, Downtown Cairo
Daily 11am to 8pm, until 10pm during events
Curated by Heba Farid and Paul Ayoub-Geday
[Photo by Selim Youssef]
On photography, at Studio Viennoise will look at selected historical examples and will touch on contemporary approaches to photographic studio practice.
Tributes to well known as well as forgotten photographers will be exhibited alongside oral histories (videos) describing the practices of some of the “Last Studios” and current practitioners. The state of the profession will be discussed through the juxtaposition of these works with that of contemporary practitioners and artists.
Questions of technique, style and the market will be discussed through the forms and mediums of the works exhibited, creating micro-climates and relationships between the works - archaeological and yet referencing contemporary practice.
The viewer will be invited to participate in the production of photographs through the "Living Studio" (at Studio Viennoise); a working photographic studio that will host invited practitioners. Each photographer/artist will re-create their own practice, deciding their own form and medium, and will produce work that will be exhibited at the end of the exhibition.
The exhibition will open to the public starting Wednesday 14 November 2012 from 11am. Various talks, film screenings, master classes, and photo sessions with selected photographers/artists will take place throughout the duration of the exhibition (5 weeks). A closing event, “Finissage,” followed by a reception will be held on Sunday 16 December 2012 at 6pm to present the production of the Living Studio.
[Photo by Selim Youssef.]
Exhibition sections:
- Studio Viennoise waiting room and working studio (the Living Studio)
- The Last Studios: From the last great studios of Cairo and Alexandria
- Oral histories: Video installations; Testimonies of practitioners
- Contemporary practices: How the profession reinvents itself
[Studio Bella, Kasr El Nil street, Cairo. Photo by Paul A-Geday.]
Tributes:
- Tributes to once famous but forgotten photographers: Photographs from collections
- Tribute to the Camera Mayya and the unknown photographer: Photographs from collections, documentary photographs, oral history, and artifacts
[Photo taken by a Camera Mayya in Alexandria. An example of a Camera Mayya is in the foreground.]
Check for program information and updates on the Facebook page.
Organized by the Photographic Memory of Egypt (PME) program at CULTNAT
Supported by the Office fédéral de la culture OFC, Musées et collections (CH), Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage, Egypt (CULTNAT) and Ismaelia Real Estate.