Rania Khallaf interviews Walid Montasser, one of Port Said's leading photographers "Times for Absence" is the title of Walid Montasser's new private exhibition, due to open at Al-Sawy Cultural Wheel on 20 February. The title itself invites many questions: is it the absence of people, scenes, or the place itself? The exhibition, which will run until 29 February, will display 170 works ranging from portraits, to free shots and symbolic themes. Coming all the way from Port Said to Cairo, Montasser, 35, seems a little troubled and distracted. Now, it seems, it is not just a theme. It is a bit more than that. The photographer's eye seems to be searching for something in the limited space of the Al-Ahram Weekly 's office. "I am just stressed, excuse me," he kept saying sporadically during our hour-long interview. A business graduate, Montasser began writing short stories at the start of the 1990s. He excelled in the art of visual writing, or descriptive writing of scenes. Then he discovered a latent passion for photography, and in 1994 he set out on a career as a photographer. At the time, there were no photographic workshops or tutors in Port Said, so he opted for self-education. His tutors were specialist photography magazines like Popular Photography and Amateur Photographer. "I started by shooting every single corner of my beloved city. The camera has taught me how beautiful life is, and how painful it is too," Montasser said. In 2000 he stopped taking photographs for five years to work in his family business. And then in 2005 he was back with an unexpected flow and enthusiasm for photography. Montasser's first private exhibition in 2005 was entitled "Port Said Through the Eyes of Walid Montasser". Held at Port Said Cultural Palace, the exhibition revealed his infatuation with his home town as well as with his camera. It is no wonder that Montasser has gained a following in his own town, and that this has encouraged others bent on a cultural awakening to give him support. The first exhibition was followed by others: "A Lens has Fallen in Love" in 2006, reflecting the photographer's romantic vision of the city, was held at Alliance Française in Port Said. A few years ago he appeared on the website Port Said Online, established by Nasr El-Alfi. In addition to his brilliant photographs of Port Said, which feature fishermen at sunset, birds flying over the sea, the boats crossing to and fro on the shoreline, and the traditional old buildings of Port Said, famous for their wooden terraces ( teressina in colloquial Arabic), Montasser has collected old photographs of the city from his relatives and collectors. He also initiated a street photographic exhibition, "Port Said in Black and White", which featured old photographs he has collected of the city. The street exhibition took place during Sham Al-Nessim in the spring of 2006, 2007 and 2008. Sham Al-Nessim day, the traditional Egyptian celebration of the coming of spring, rings a special note in Port Said. There the day is famous for its celebration of the Allenby Festival ( Harq Allenby ), when people assemble to dance and build bonfires to burn a puppet figure of British General Edmund Allenby, who during World War I landed his troops in the city before moving on through Gaza to oust the Ottomans, occupy Jerusalem and dominate Palestine. The three-day street exhibition telling the history of Port Said was attended by 5,000 visitors. It was sponsored by Port Said Online ( www.portsaid.com ), the site that enthralls lovers of Port Said around the world. Montasser's photographs of Port Said are not of a documentary type, although there are no people in the scenes. "It's not what I see, it's how I see it," he says. "I used to spend many hours a day just looking at the sea, or wandering about the streets of my beautiful city, tracing the smell of traditional cafés and other buildings. This is why I am more concerned with: what is behind the scene. When I take a picture of a traditional old building, I feel as if I am hearing the traditional simsimiya [a stringed instrument] music typical of Port Said." Back to the theme, Times of Absence. The collection includes intriguing pictures depicting people waiting for something to come, to happen. They are in a state of transit. Pictures of rows of adjacent cars and bicycles, waiting motionless for absent passengers, also raise questions and invoke one's imagination: for what and for whom are they waiting? And is it the photographer's frequent travels that have made him infatuated with moments of departure, moments of physical absence? "Actually, I did not see it this way. I like to shoot photos of things used by people. When I shoot a bicycle, I see and feel the existence of the man who rides it, even if he is absent from the picture," he explains. And this brings us back to the theme once again: "By absence I mean the way I feel the existence of human beings in pictures in which they actually do not exist. It is like when you feel a sudden urge towards people you have lost," he says. Montasser views himself as a fine art photographer, but not limited to a certain category. He is influenced by the classic school of photography, especially that of Henri Cartier Bresson, the classic French photographer who coined the term "the decisive moment", which is the moment that differentiates between a very good shot and the perfect shot. "For me, the perfect shot is the one that really shakes me from inside. The shot that makes me clap and jump for joy." A good part of the exhibition is dedicated to portraits of old people. One of them, of his own grandmother, last year won him the Al-Sawy photography competition. "I really like old people; I like the way they dress, the way they comb their hair, the way they ride their bicycles. I don't only take photos of their faces, but of the life that is reflected in their eyes and wrinkles. "My grandmother is 95 years old now. I took this picture one day when she was recounting stories of the old days of the city. Her face is full of pride and strength. Her accounts of Port Said make me feel as if I am back in the old face of this cosmopolitan city in the 1930s and in the days when the city was a melting pot of different cultures. She was raised with Greek neighbours, who formed a considerable part of the population at that time." Another fascinating photograph is of a girl sitting on her mother's knee on the first day of the feast. They are waiting at Qantara station for the train from Port Said to Ismailia, and although it is feast time there is a mood of depression in the girl's eyes, while her mother looks like a motionless black stock. Some of Montasser's pictures were chosen to be used as book covers for Russian translations of the books published by the Centre for Humanitarian Cooperation in Moscow, the most notable of which are The Yacoubian Building by Alaa El-Aswani and Accepting the Other by Milad Hanna. Montasser's next project will revolve around life in the streets, depicting people in everyday life. "Again, I will start with Port Said where traditional cafés like Ras Al-Barr and Al-Nozha host football fans and old people, those traditional cafés with wide spaces and high ceilings; and then I move on to other cities and streets of Egypt, streets where my lens will surely fall in love with."
