Laura El-Tantawy is not just a photographer, but also a ‘historian’. She has clicked thousands of photographs to ‘frame’ major political events in the northern African country over the years, apart from writing books on the political history of Egypt. El-Tantawy, who has documented the daily life of her countrymen since 2005, successfully framed the turbulent protests of 2011 in her country that ultimately forced former President Hosni Mubarak to quit after ruling Egypt for 30 years.
Indians get an opportunity to experience the current political development in Egypt through El-Tantawy’s lens, as she is showcasing her works in an exhibition at Triveni Kala Sangam in New Delhi. Soon after the inauguration of the exhibition, titled ‘In the Shadow of Pyramids’, on August 25, she shared her experience with the Indian media. “I was in Italy when the revolution started but I knew I had to be there in Cairo … I took thousands of photographs at the Tahrir Square, the changing mood of the protests and the people behind it. The experience was exhilarating…. I had a ringside view of history,” said El-Tantawy.
El-Tantawy, born to Egyptian parents in Britain and brought up in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the US, recalled that the title of her first publication was also ‘In the Shadow of the Pyramids’. In this book (published in 2015), she tried to explore the lives of everyday Egyptians and their identity mainly through poetry and photographs, amid the country’s political transformation.

El-Tantawy admitted that photographing the revolution was a difficult job, as “it caused a lot of tension in my family”. She stressed: “In Egypt, women do not often work alone as photographers. It can be dangerous. I get a lot of stares, a lot of comments. There is nowhere to hide…but I stuck on”. She told the Indian press: “My family saw the dark side of the revolution. I saw the beautiful side of Egypt.”
However, El-Tantawy feels that she failed to capture what really happened on the ground. “The revolution became a microcosm of what Egypt can be. It held very different promise… But I also saw the movement becoming polluted,” she stressed. She believes that the revolution is not over and it will restart at any time. “We have hit the pause button. It will restart… this is because people are yet to achieve what they fought for: dignity,” said the 37-year-old freelance news photographer.
Commenting on her decision to showcase her photographs in the Indian capital, El-Tantawy said that there are many similarities between India and Egypt. “I can see the parallels in the built heritage of Cairo and Delhi, and the people’s daily struggle to achieve dignity,” she explained. She, meanwhile, thanked Art Heritage for hosting the exhibition in New Delhi.

For his part, Director of Art Heritage Amal Allana said that it is important for the Indians to experience El-Tantawy’s personal nine-year journey of entrenched reportage surrounding the events of the ‘January 25 Revolution’ at Tahrir Square in Cairo. “There is a reason why we decided to do the exhibition in the 70th year of India’s Independence and in August… we hope El-Tantawy works will stir our collective conscience around a critical question: Have we achieved the kind of freedom we fought for? The world seems to always focus a lot on how the West fought for freedom but forget what the other parts did. This exhibition captures that untold story,” added Allana.
El-Tantawy’s works have been published in various publications worldwide, including Time Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine, Burn Magazine and National Geographic.
Interestingly, she was not ready to admit that her works are “political” in nature. She argued: “I photograph people, their lives and emotions. I talk to my subjects because I really love to engage with people. But I want to leave it to the viewer to engage with my images, whichever way she wants.”
The August 25-September 20 exhibition is El-Tantawy’s first in India.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das