An Exploration Of Inner Power Through Salma El Kashef’s Vivacious “Untitled” Exhibition at Cairo Photo Week

Using the camera as a tool to capture people in their most intimate personal moments is a skill reserved to a special few, a skill that has been refined and polished by Egypt’s renowned photographer and cinematographer Salma El Kashef. Renowned in her craft, the artist has been widely active in the photography community taking part in its biggest events and running her own educational workshops including her female-led panel discussion “Women Who Create”. Today, she is yet again taking part in the third edition of the widely anticipated annual photography event “Cairo Photo Week” with her very own unique exhibition dubbed ‘Untitled’.

To truly soak in the artistry of El Kashef we decided to drop the exhibit a visit to see it for ourselves as well as have a fun chat with the photographer.

Under the guise of Cairo’s top photography school Photopia, running for three years now is one of the most impactful regional photo festival dubbed Cairo Photo Week. Every year, its the kind of event that manages to bring together Egypt and the MENA region’s top photographers all under one roof. It is a celebration of the art of photography as beyond its eclectic range of workshops and talks, it also showcases the latest regional and local exhibitions from a talented pool of photographers, one of which is Salma El Kashef.

“I always take part in Cairo Photo Week as its founding body Photopia was and always is very special to me. Over the years I was able to witness its growth and always felt inspired by its co-founder Marwa Abou Leila. It is quite literally the most important photography event in all of Egypt so I never miss it even if my participation is a short 10 minute talk, I make sure to attend”

Salma El Kashef

Salma stressed how its growth every year goes beyond it being the biggest photography event as one of the prime reasons for its continued popularity is Marwa Abou Leila and the team who manages to achieve something bigger with every edition.

Dropping a visit was a truly unforgettable experience. Forking out from Talaat Harb Square was a completely different world from the rest of Cairo’s downtown, one of winding alleyways dotted with garages, plastic chairs belonging to informal coffee shops and a massive warehouse dubbed Rawabet Art Space, the staging ground for many of Cairo Photo Week’s exhibitions including “Untitled”.

The warehouse is the tapestry onto which the art pieces were displayed, entire photos covering staircases and walls. All over the space were eclectic pieces whether it’s a square room covered from top to bottom in eclectic scenes from the people of Upper Egypt or an entire corridor dedicated to budding romances across the Middle East stemming back to the 70s and 80s. It was a true celebration of photography and El Kashef said it best ‘this year is bigger than ever before’.

The ‘Untitled’ Exhibition

On the very far corner was a window into El Kashef’s world made up of enlarged, floor to ceiling posters of her finest work depicting a cocktail of raw emotions from rage to sheer joy. That tiny corner acted as the beating heart of the entire event, a sort of center point, a magnet attracting all visitors towards it whether its a Belgian teacher called Amber who expressed how its her first time in such a large exhibition or the infamous Russian belly dancer Johara who graced the warehouse with her usual bubbly personality.

It’s not just because the pieces are large in size, there is a magnetizing quality and appeal to them. As we approached the tiny corner holding El Kashef’s work we were lucky to stumble upon one of the models behind her photographs, Sohaila and wound up striking up a conversation with her to uncover the story behind how the piece came to life.

“The process was basically Salma explaining to me a lot of feelings and emotions that I should be feeling on set. She wanted me to be very fierce and very angry, as if I am riding a motorbike (I was in fact on a motorbike when this photo got shot) and I am travelling full speed in rage. Salma wanted all that built in anger to be let out and she wanted to see it on my face and that’s how we ended up with the photograph hanging on the wall”.

This year, the artist was planning something different with her exhibition, more of an experimental approach to her usual work. Speaking to El Kashef, we got to glean into the essence behind the “Untitled exhibition: “I sprayed some graffiti on some of the photos that will be on display… to me, the entire process was akin to having an artistic block visually manifesting itself onto my work”, unlike previous years, this year’s exhibition does not center around a theme but rather, its more of a look into her favorite snapped photographs from her entire career as she told us that she hand-selected these four particular pieces for her exhibition.

Looking around, the four pieces that hung did depict a rich cocktail of emotions, as though painted on each face. The artist explained how she was subconsciously drawn to all four photos because of how they had an innate power. With such a huge warehouse, she knew that she had the option of hanging many of the photographs she took throughout her career yet she purposely chose those four due to the power they represent. To her, when it comes to the concept of emotions, she believes that each person who will visit the exhibit will see different emotions depicted in each piece, wherein one person may see anger, another craze, a third dominance and so on. Yet, what ties all these pieces together is that they showcase a type of intrinsic power and that is the essence of the entire “Untitled” exhibition.

When it comes to its unique name, she decided to keep it as “Untitled”, explaining that “its kind of like when you release a music album and you’re not sure what to name it so you go for Untitled”. So far, what can be gleaned from the exhibition is it is a true representation of completely uninhibited and free artistic expression, not anchored or held down by rules or restrictions.

With every year, the artist has proven to be distinguished in her craft and continues to prove the power of photography through her eclectic portfolio. To witness and experience her art for yourself you can head to Downtown Cairo’s Rawabet Art Space and attend her “Untitled” exhibition as well as various exhibitions that will be running from Feb 9 till 18.

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