Bassam El-Zoghbi talks to Osama Kamal about turning the news into an art form Photographer Bassam El-Zoghbi has chosen the Beit Al-Umma, close to the Saad Zaghloul Museum and the former home of the nationalist leader, to hold his first exhibition. El-Zoghbi has not given the exhibition a title, claiming that he believes the photograph speaks for itself and shares its meaning and significance with the viewers. El-Zoghbi says viewers have every right to interpret the photographs in any manner they choose, and that they can thus impart on his work their own taste and experience. This being the case, the name is in the mind of the beholder. The photographs on display show scenes from the theatre and of dance and musical performances that El-Zoghbi attended as a press photographer. He manages to infuse the pictures with a piece of himself, so they are not strictly documentary but rather artistic in nature and effect. He captures essential moments in the show, and his images point us to the philosophical, human, and artistic undertones of the art he portrays. In a sense, El-Zoghbi is a second director of the shows he photographs, as he adds new dimensions to the vision of the actual director. All his photographs are enveloped in circles, as if signifying the freedom of interpretation he wants the viewers to feel. The circle here is both artistic and symbolic in impact, pulling the spectator into another world, one in which beginnings double as ends. The circle may also signify harmony and unification. In mythical symbolism, the circle is a sign of completion and integrity. What it does not signify is division, fragmentation and drifting. The colours El-Zoghbi uses are interesting. There is a clear presence of primary colours -- red, blue, and yellow. Then one deciphers the whole gamut of shades, the pink and orange and mauve, but these all fade in the background, offering a counterpoint to the main theme and adding nuances to an ever complex reality. Born in 1970, El-Zoghbi graduated from the law school at Ain Shams University when he was 23. He involved himself in photography classes with the photographer Alaa Abdel-Nabi. Since then, El-Zoghbi has worked for numerous publications, chief of which were the city's top newspapers -- Al-Gomhuriya, Al-Akhbar and Al-Ahram. El-Zoghbi says there is a big difference between photojournalism and artistic photography. The former has strict professional criteria, and its main function is to relay the news or describe the event. The journalistic photograph seeks to record the news, whereas the artistic photo follows the whim of the artist, his feelings, and his view of the world. The freedom allowed to the photographic artist is practically unlimited. The photojournalist, meanwhile, is only one member of a team where everyone is dedicated to bringing the news to the reader. El-Zoghbi divides his time between photojournalism and artistic photography. In his journalistic career he learnt how to be neutral in order to take the right picture. When working for the press, he puts his mind before his heart. He spent a whole week covering the recent ferryboat tragedy. He had to set his feelings aside to do his work, and yet one of his images went on to win the Press Syndicate's first photography award in 2006. Sometimes the two lines of El-Zoghbi's career intersect. This happened on two occasions last year. The first photograph was taken during the unveiling of a newly- tomb on the Saqqara necropolis. Thanks to his understanding of light and shade, El-Zoghbi was able to take evocative pictures of the relief work and the paintings in the tomb. One of these pictures, taken through a mirror held by one of the archaeologists, went on to win him the Photojournalist's Prize in 2009. The second picture was taken during one of Walid Aouni's modern dance shows. El-Zoghbi took a picture of the two lead dancers, with the rest of the stage and the other dancers fading like phantoms into the background. This photograph won him a second Photojournalist's Prize during the same year. El-Zoghbi does not belong to any established school of photography; he came into artistic photography through his work as a photojournalist. And yet photography is his only artistic outlet. He is an avid reader and a cinema and theatre buff, and he frequents art shows. His main passion, however, is for photography. As an art form, he says, photography is just as sophisticated as painting and sculpture, if not more. The advance in camera technology now allows photographers to take their work to formerly unexpected plateaus of artistry. As a former law student, El-Zoghbi maintains a sober view of life. His dedication to his career as a photojournalist is never eclipsed by his artistic endeavours. He says that journalism is an endless source of knowledge; it is through his career as a photojournalist that he has travelled frequently, met interesting people, and discovered more about life, thus augmenting his art. El-Zoghbi sees life through two different viewpoints. In one, he is neutral in his pursuit of the news. In the other, he searches for meaning behind the surface and digs for a deeper truth beyond the evident. Between these two pursuits there is a continuum of endeavour, a circle of insight not unlike the one enveloping his photos.
