A new permanent photo exhibition gallery has opened its doors to all the talented photographers out there, Amira El-Noshokaty zoomed in Beads in every shade of blue; tribal women dressed in colourful garments; a goldfish heading towards the viewer; a hand-painted wall picturing a rowing boat; all these and many more vivid photographs are splashed on the walls of the monthly photography exhibition at Les Quatres Coins (The Four Corners) gallery in the Cairo suburb of Maadi. "Colour is our theme for this month," said Wael Saber, professor of photography at the Higher Institute for Cinema, the instigator of the photo exhibition and one of the five co- owners of the gallery. Himself a professional photographer as well as a teacher, he knows the importance of the art of photography and how it still captures an exact moment. "Seizing this specific moment is the secret of photography," Saber told Al-Ahram Weekly. It was this spontaneity that led to the idea of creating a permanent photo gallery with variable themes for professionals side by side with amateurs. The themes, or seasons as Saber refers to them, are changed every month and a half. However, the exhibition grants marketing exposure to the photographs that have been exhibited in previous seasons. "This is the first step," he says. "My aim is to have an electronic library for all the photographers who take part in our exhibitions so that they have a bigger audience over time." The exhibitions, which have been running since last March, have featured in turn abstracts, landscapes and portraits, while the next theme will be black and white. An average of 75 Egyptian photographers have submitted work over the months, of which 60 per cent were amateurs. Recently a one-day photography workshop was conducted parallel to the exhibition where photographers were asked to shoot pictures of the whole gallery, including the exhibition. The results were remarkable. There are no membership rules for joining this artistic parade; the only rule is to have to fall into the depicted theme. "We aim at the fresh eye, regardless of age or experience," Saber explains. Of the 37 works exhibited this month is a photograph of a horse on a merry- go-round at an Egyptian funfair. "It reminds me of the carousel horse that my mother never let me ride as a child, fearing I might fall off," says photographer Abeer El-Maadawi. The photograph, with its vividly coloured patterns along with the scratches that mark the hand of time, reminds one of childhood and the echoing giggles and joy that fill young hearts at the smallest acts of kindness. This photograph, art aside, just makes you smile. El-Maadawi is a computer engineer in her mid-30s, mother of a young toddler, and is currently between jobs and spends her time doing social work and photography. "I only started photography a year ago," she told the Weekly. "Before that I'd never even held a camera in my life. I was out with a friend, and once I looked through the camera lens I just couldn't stop." El-Maadawi later took up photography classes to improve her technique. This is the first time she has submitted her work to an exhibition, and she is excited because the gallery does not discriminate. "You can find the artwork of a professional photographer who has been doing this for the past 14 years side by side with that of an amateur who learnt to take photographs yesterday, because the focus is on the quality of the photograph regardless of the background of the photographer," she says. Another photograph exhibited is one by 28- year-old Karim Hassan, a chemist with an artistic flair. Using a Zenit camera with a 200- millimetre lens, he has captured the early morning of a typical summer day in Alexandria. The scene, taken from the seventh floor, is the early summer breath of the lower- middle-class beach of Miami. One, where the chairs and umbrellas are no longer hand woven in colourful patterns but are colour-coded according to the sponsor in shades of orange and yellow. Hassan waited for the moment when the sun's rays were reflected on the empty plastic chairs scattered about the beach before the eager arrival of the vacationers who cram the beaches of Alexandria from dawn to dusk. It is a photograph that brings back a wave of summer zest with all its noisy crowds, along with the voices of the fresca vendors in the background. Hassan studied fine arts at Cairo University and directing at the Higher Institute for Cinema. He also attended various photography workshops. As a fan of old fashioned photography, Hassan says that despite the high costs of developing film as opposed to digital photography, the quality of the picture could be compromised. "Regular film could give a resolution up to 30 mega pixels, while to get the same quality in digital photography one must get a very expensive digital camera that could cost up to LE20,000," he argues. It is this that keeps up the demand for regular film in Europe, despite the current digital domination. Hassan believes the gallery is unique because it allows him to present his artwork alongside that of other famous names whose work he has studied. The exhibitions also have a theme that is in harmony with the season, for example the holidays and Christmas season is one that screams "colour" as a sign of festivity, and this is exactly the nature of the current theme. "There is also their uniquely successful marketing strategy through the use of their growing digital database that allows them to market all the artwork of each artist, regardless of those that are displayed," he says. Currently Hassan, along with his friends, has created a Facebook group called In Focus, where they exhibit the outcome of their weekly out-door photography field trips and receive first-hand audience feed back. Is the art of photography flourishing in Egypt? "I believe that the art of photography is not appreciated in Egypt," Saber says. He recalls how he once exhibited a framed photograph that was selling for LE300. A man came up to him arguing why it cost so much, if the frame cost LE20, the glass LE5 and the printing LE10. "He missed the whole point," Saber says. "There is a general social view of photography as more of a profession than an art," explains Hani El-Borei, co-owner of the gallery. "This unfortunately is adopted by a great number of Egyptian artists as well." He laments the fact that the art of photography is one of the key tools to document historical events, especially those in Egypt. Photographs taken of Egypt at the beginning of the 20th century are a rare documentation of Egyptian traditions, customs and geographical variables, such as those documenting the Nile only a short distance from the Great Pyramid. Unlike the owners of the gallery, El-Maadawi believes that the art of photography in Egypt has picked up in the past five years and is spreading fast, especially on Facebook. On a parallel note, Hassan is optimistic and believes that there are numerous young Egyptian photographers on the rise. "I have witnessed Egyptian photographers being awarded the best prizes when it comes to street photography, a rich realm that only developing countries possess," he says. "Besides, Egypt has a very rich and diverse nature from the deserts to the Nile that deserves to be photographed." Hassan is currently preparing to hold the first exhibition of the In Focus group while adopting a similar line of thought to Les Quatres Coins.
