CAIRO - It doesn't just take a click on a camera button for a professional photographer to capture a good photo, as he also needs to search for the right face and place to make that snap beautiful, emotional and descriptive. "Photography is an art like painting and sculpture, as the photographer should take an interest in the composition of his photo," says Egyptian photographer Hussein Abdel-Wahed. Abdel-Wahed, 29, who this year became the first Arab and Egyptian to win the worldwide Photo Walk People's Choice Award, has many secrets to disclose about photography and the US winning photo of the People's Choice Award. ‘‘This wasn't the first time for me to participate in the Photo Walk, but this time I decided that the word ‘never' doesn't exist,'' he adds. As the competition is a foreign one, Hussein thought he stood little chance of winning, because he is from an Arab country; but, at the second attempt, he changed his mind. ‘‘I looked at the photos of the other competitors from around the world and realised I could be as good as them if I took it more seriously,” he explains. Photo Walk is a social photographyevent, where photographers from all over the world get together, usually in a downtown area or trendy section of town, to walk around, shoot photos, and generally have fun with otherphotographers. Last year, over 32,000 people participated in more than 900 photo walks around the world. The US worldwide annual competition usually starts in July. Participants uploaded there photos on http://worldwidephotowalk.com from all over the world on the same day, usually on a Saturday, because it's a a day off worldwide. Renowned photographer Scott Kelby, the president and co-founder of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP), and a photographer, designer, and awardwinning author of more than 40 books, translated into dozens of languages supervises the competition, sponsored by a number of big US photgraphy companies. Three groups from Cairo participated this year, supervised respectively by photographers Karim Nabil, Ahmed Hossam and Ibrahim el-Masry. In each group, there were 50 photographers. Hussein, who found in the faces of Egyptian a lot of themes for his photos, joined Ahmed Hossam's group, which mainly focused in its photo walk on the Ibn Toloun, El-Rifai and Sultan Hassan mosques in Islamic Cairo. ”I like the Islamic Cairo area, so I decided to join Ahmed Hossam's group, which also included photographers like Karim Soleiman, Mohamed Abdel-Wahab, Rami Salem, Hoda Hani, Hesham Mohamed and Nahed Kamal,” he told the Egyptian Mail. Photo walks are infectious, because, when you get that many creative people together, who all have a love of photography in common, you can't help but have a great time. When the deadline came for uploading their photos for the competition arrived, Hussein told this newspaper that he and the rest of the group were very disappointed because they hadn't found any good photos to take. “That day, my friends and I were in El-Rifai Mosque, where we found a group of children. We started playing with them and taking photos of them, and I got a great picture of a young girl with lovely eyes.” The same girl was photographed by Hussein's friends, but it seems that his was better. “Really I tried to do something different; I got the girl to stand in front of a wooden window, on which Allah Akbar [God is Great] was written. But she hid ‘Akbar', so only the word ‘God' appeared, reflecting any religion on Earth,” he told this newspaper. Photography nowadays is very popular with young people, but practicemakes perfect. The Egyptian winner, who said that the Government and those concerned with culture weren't particularly impressed by his achievement, added that he would like photographers in his country to have more freedom and to be better appreciated. “Many times, the police have stopped me because I work freelance,” said Hussein disappointedly, adding that foreigners have more freedom to take photos in Egypt than local people. “When I went to Tunisia, no-one stopped me taking photos outside the President's house,” explained Hussein, adding that he planned to photograph the wildlife in a number of African countries. Hussein loves travelling and dreams of offering something positive to the Egyptian faces he's met in Cairo or other cities, who have inspired him and helped him reflect on Egypt's social reality. During a visit he made to the village of Nazla in the Fayoum Governorate, famous for its pottery, the Egyptian photographer was attracted by the face a poor old woman, who looked happy despite her poverty. ‘When I took her photo, entitled ‘Hope', she told me that she would ask God to let the photo win a big prize, so she could use the money to pay for her to perform the Hajj [Major Pilgrimage], which has become very expensive.”
