However infrequent or artistically disappointing photography exhibitions may be, they are always an opportunity to document our past and present. Wafika Shafik's debut photo show, which closed last week at Mahmoud Mukhtar Museum's small gallery, was both artistically impressive and a valuable document. Born in 1938, Shafik is a multi-talented artist who has been an active player on the art scene since she graduated from the painting department of the Faculty of Fine Arts in 1958. With no specific title, the exhibition includes 36 pictures in different sizes, dealing with different themes. The artist's interest in landscape is evident. Beautiful landscape pictures from Siwa and Baharia oases, Luxor, Aswan and Nubia are prevalent. They are captured from the viewpoint of a traveller. Shafik also shows pictures of flowers and trees, many taken at the Orman Botanical Gardens, which are absorbing and cheerful. One beautiful shot is of a single tree at night with green light emanating from its branches as they spread in different directions, like swaying arms, giving the impression of a woman dancing. Inspiring joy in the viewer, the sense of happiness is palpable. Another remarkable print, 100 cm by 70 cm, depicts shoe marks of people going in different directions. Taken in Siwa, it is “what remains of our long journeys in life: just a trace,” as Shafik puts it. The artist, who also earned diplomas in calligraphy and folk art – from Arabic Calligraphy Institute in Kuwait in 1987, and the Cairo Arts Academy in 1997, respectively – has given over 15 solo exhibitions of painting, participating in many group exhibitions, notably of small paintings and photography. “Sometimes when you see a fantastic view,” Shafik explains, “particularly in circumstances related to light or composition, and it is hard for you to start painting it instantly, you just resort to the camera, fearing that the view will vanish from my memory before you have captured it. It is important to document the moment, and then I decide whether it remains as a picture, or becomes a painting. Some shots, in which movement plays a key role, can be easily altered to paintings, or sketches, as when I photograph the movement of passengers while waiting at a train station.” As a painter, Shafik is perhaps better known for figures in motion, which she sketches in any number of media: watercolours, coloured pencils, charcoal or ink. “I like watching the human body in its harmonic movements, and I make speed sketches. This has given me the ability to draw in less detail; heavy or light strokes of the pencil can illustrate the movement of the body.” In the world of photography what captures Shafik's imagination is landscape and rhythm. “A scene that consists of different, repeated items, gives me a musical inspiration; it is like hearing a symphony. For example, looking at adjacent sand dunes in the desert, or waves in the sea is like listening to a classical music,” she smiled. One interesting picture features the back of an open truck, on which a load of huge iron cylinders is loaded. The hollow circles at the end of the cylinders make up a brilliant scene, recalling the black and white keys of a piano. In another picture, the reflection of a small bridge in the pond at the Orman Botanical Gardens gives the impression of an eye and eyelashes. “This kind of shot gives the photographer more symbolic meanings than expected. Shooting rocks in a certain composition and light can evoke animal figures, too. I believe that the photographer's eye can listen, and make sense of unseen gestures that should be well-received.” This, then, is the essence of Shafik's photography. Mahmoud Said's Girls is the title of another picture featuring two different but interconnecting scenes: the first is a copy of the famous painting Banat Bahari by Mahmoud Said, the second is of a pair of veiled girls walking aimlessly in the streets of old Cairo. “I wanted to draw attention to the shocking difference between girls in Egypt a century ago, whose femininity was obvious in their beautiful and sexy costumes, and the girls of today with their strange conservative getups.” At the age of 79, Shafik is an active member of many art groups which organise trips to various parts of Egypt. “Travel has always been the joy of my life. I think I would die if I stayed in one place for too long. Egypt is a very generous country for artists, especially photographers, for its various, beautiful landscapes.” Shafik learned photography from her father Mustafa Shafik, a film still photographer active in the 1950s. “I used to watch him taking photos and buying development chemicals. This is how I fell in love with the camera.” Shafik also worked as a teacher at the Art Education School, Al-Azhar University. “I taught a subject we called mostahlakat or ‘used materials', which combined drawing, handcrafts, photography, collage and patchwork all together.” With such comprehensive experience, Shafik's work is experimental. One picture is made up of two adjacent photos of steel sheets at different distances, with the second, larger one printed on canvas to allow the artist to add some painting on top. “I was taking some shots in the flower garden at Al-Qanatir Al-Khairia, when I found a huge number of these metal containers, used as pots for different plants. The scene was so captivating,” she recalls. “I loved the way the empty containers were crammed together. Beauty can also be found even in rubbish, no?”
