Beautiful photography of Cairenes

My former neighbor, Miguel Angel Sanchez, is featured by the NYT's photography blog. I've been talking to Miguel about his project for years, and stupidly have not yet taken up his offer of a portrait. Check out the slideshow here.

On the right, Amm Rabia, a super-friendly bawaab on our street, now immortalized.

Update on Nov 29, 2011 at 15:58 by Issandr El Amrani

Miguel will be exhibiting the photos starting next week — here are the details:

Date:Sunday,December 11, 2011 Time: 7 PM
Venue: Palace of Arts, Cairo Opera House

Exhibition will be running from December 11, 2011 until January 9, 2012 

Signs of the times

?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1304178801712" alt=""/>Hossam el-Hamalawy, January 29, Cairo
Check out the latest issue of Shahadat, an online magazine produced by ArteEast: It's dedicated to the Egyptian revolution. Very nicely edited, annotated, translated etc. and featuring the work of our dear friends Hossam el-Hamalawy, Sarah Carr, Jano Charbel and more. 

Matthew Cassel's great images

Even if you don't read Arabic, you might have guessed that the writing on the donkey says "Mubarak."

Check out more great photography at Matthew Cassel's website, Just Image. 

Fantastic photos from Tunisia

More great photos from Tunisia at the Boston Globe's The Big Picture (h/t @mossaberizing)

Pic of the day

From Arabian Babbler, on Twitter:

Brass Balls. Made in #Palestine.  http://twitpic.com/30xzcy

The option I want for my car

Via Black and WTF.

Egyptian photography

Photograph by Maha Maamoun

One of our favourite art critics, Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, reviews one of our favourite writers, Maria Golia, who has just published a book on the history of Egyptian photography, and finds that Photography and Egypt: 

..does not even try to jam its subject into an elegant or orderly art-historical narrative. Rather, it traces the development of photography in Egypt over the last 170 years through a chaotic and unruly field of social, political and economic contexts. Golia does not view the medium in isolation, nor does she focus solely on its aesthetic attributes or technological advancements. Instead she considers photography as a dynamic practice whose means and ends cannot be disentangled from the overlapping twists and turns of the country’s history.

Photograph by Hala Elkoussy

Golia also points out how Egypt is connected to the earliest beginnings of photography, and is one of the most photographed landscapes ever. We have been waiting expectantly for this book to come out--how can we get a copy? 

Siwa and the Great Sand Sea

Check out these great 120mm Holga pics from sometimes Arabist contributor madmonk:

Matthew Cassel's Gaza images

Check out Matthew Cassel's images.

The Council of the Genies

A cave in Oman called Majlis al-Jinn. From National Geographic via HuffPo.

Click to read more ...

Stefan Geens' Middle East panoramas

Stefan Geens, photographer and Call of Duty IV addict extraordinaire, has a lovely series of 3D panoramas of Sanaa, Yemen (click and drag on pic to move camera angle):
Spice suq, Sana'a, Yemen in Yemen More from Stefan here, and notably check out this incredible panoramas from inside Egyptian tombs.

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Del.icio.us links for November 21st

Automatically posted links for November 21st:

• مجمع البحوث الإسلامية يواÙ�Ù‚ علي نشر «الإسلام هو الحل» وكتب إخوانية لـ«البنا» و«مشهور» - Egypt Islamic council authorizes publication of Ikhwan publications - this will have the conspiracy theorists going!
• "U.S. Seeks to Prosecute Pulitzer Prize Winning A.P. Photographer" by Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine) - Pentagon to put AP photog on trial on dubious charges
• خلص ! :: من نحن - Khalass! campaign in Lebanon, civil society urges politicians to resolve differences
• Beirut Is Not Tehran - Exum and McInerney on why the US should change policy in Lebanon
• Space Age Wudu - Ablution device from the future
• FT.com / World - Sharif hopes to end Saudi exile - Saudis pushing for Sharif as PM in Pakistan, against US wishes
• Islamists Today: Brotherhood Youth: A time bomb - Khalil al-Anani on the generational divide in the MB
• YouTube - Musharraf's crackdown on media - Al Jazeera report on crackdown on press, possible UAE collaboration
• Meeting Resistance: A film by Steve Connors & Molly Bingham - Movie about the Iraqi underground, has insider footage of insurgent cells

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Del.icio.us links for November 19th

Automatically posted links for November 19th:

• Una persecucion escandalosa - Spanish intellectuals speak out for Algerian dissident placed under arrest
• Am I to blame for his private war? | The Observer - A photographer and a soldier's story from Iraq
• Mideast Conference Nears, With Few Plans - washingtonpost.com - No one has any idea of what's going on with Annapolis
• Christians in Jerusalem want Jews to stop spitting on them - Love that headline
• "Viva la Revolucion" in Riyadh -- for 24 hours - Chavez in Saudi Arabia, invokes Christ, social justice. Wrong audience?

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