Photography by Khaled Gawdat (Photos: courtesy of Indian Embassy Media Office)
People and Places, an exhibition of photos by pedriatric surgeon and photographer Khaled Gawdat, opened for one day on Wednesday, March 14th, at El-Sawy Culture Wheel.
Present were Indian Ambassador Sanjay Bhattacharyya, actress Aida Abdel-Aziz, El-Sawy Culture Wheel founder Mohamed El-Sawy and artist Ashraf Talaat, who has had several solo exhibitions on India at the Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture.
Part of the sixth India by the Nile Festival, the exhibition presents an Egyptian perspective on India’s wonders, such as the Taj Mahal, the Lotus Temple and the tea fields of Monae. In vivid colour, Gawdat showcases their landscapes, traditional costumes and human faces.
A place of extreme calmness and spiritual peace, the Lotus Temple welcomes visitors from all over the world to come worship and practice their various religious rituals on the sole condition that no one produces any noise.
Photography by Khaled Gawdat (Photos: courtesy of Indian Embassy Media Office)
As a hobbyist for some four decades since obtaining his first camera at age 15, Gawdat was reluctant to exhibit and might never have if not for the Indian ambassador's insistence.
Gawdat has visited India 16 times. The first visit was in the 1990s when, having planned a 15-day trip, he ended up staying for three months.
“Every time I visit India,” he explained, “I keep in mind the need to discover new places, new angles to capture with my lens and to connect with people. As I always say, ‘India is the photographer’s heaven’ with its vast, colourful canvas of magnificent landscapes, cultural heritage, religions coexisting in harmony and many places of worship."
"For me, India is also the home of some of humanity’s greatest architectural wonders. I always feel at home in India and feel that something in my genes is linked to India. Even when I go to the United States to attend medical conferences they think I am Indian."
Photography by Khaled Gawdat (Photos: courtesy of Indian Embassy Media Office)
"It is an incredible country, the Mother of Wonders, as we call it in Egypt. Only in India, for instance, will you find the Dalai Lama opening a medical conference. Any photographer needs to visit India for at least 15 years in order to become involved with its people and cover its many attractions. Each time they can focus on a specific subject,” he said.
Photography by Khaled Gawdat (Photos: courtesy of Indian Embassy Media Office)
Photography by Khaled Gawdat (Photos: courtesy of Indian Embassy Media Office)
Photography by Khaled Gawdat (Photos: courtesy of Indian Embassy Media Office)
Photography by Khaled Gawdat (Photos: courtesy of Indian Embassy Media Office)
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