While exploring a labyrinth of winding streets in an off-the-beaten-path neighborhood of Cairo, a man stopped me. He asked, "Why are you taking photographs?" Overwhelmed by the scene, I simply motioned and replied, "Just look at it, it’s beautiful." He looked, then scoffed, "Beautiful?! It’s an old mess," and walked on. This was the first, but not the last time I encountered such reactions as a photographer in Cairo.
Researching Cairo, I found phrases like "Is it safe?", "threat of terrorism" dominating message boards and articles. The general advice was to see the pyramids and museum before moving on to Luxor. However, headlines from a century ago told a different story. In 1925, Cairo was voted "Most beautiful city in the world". Today, it is more commonly associated with the tumultuous era since the 2011 revolution. Nearly a century has passed since 1925, and the remains of this turbulent 100 years mixed with the present day created a unique narrative that I aimed to capture. After losing my job in early 2020, I dedicated much of 2020 and 2021 to documenting this seldom-photographed megacity.
The project's title borrows from an ancient Egyptian proverb: "A Beautiful Thing Is Never Perfect." Through candid photographs, I aim to show moments of joy, sadness, quirkiness, and hope. My goal is to capture the lives of Cairos people, revealing moments that, despite our different backgrounds, we can all relate to and appreciate the shared beauty of life.
A beautiful thing is never perfect
