Formal Spectres (4x6) (Photo: Facebook event page)
In an exhibition titled Formal Spectres (4x6), photographer Mohamed Ezz focused on studio portrait photographs, the ones mostly on official identification documents like passports with the standard size of 4x6 centimetres.
He explores how these photos that are preserved for years in these documents hold more than a blank look, and how their redundant usage affects their value.
Ezz was inspired by Roland Barthes’ book Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography, in which he reflects on portraits as an intersection of repertoires saying “In front of the lens, I am at the same time: the one I think I am, the one I want others to think I am, the one the photographer thinks I am, and the one he makes use of to exhibit his art.”
For Formal Spectres (4x6), Ezz shot some portraits in studios around Cairo, and also installed a basic studio at Artellewa to photograph the locals.
Ezz studied engineering at the University of Cairo and is working in the field. His interest in photography goes back to 2003, and has since been exhibited extensively locally and internationally.
He has also won several awards including the golden award at the Emirates International Photography Competition in 2009, the golden award from Sharjah awards for Arab photo in 2011 and the Salon award from the 24th Youth Salon in Egypt in 2013.
Programme:
The exhibit will open on Tuesday 12 January at 6pm and will run to 25 January. The venue is open everyday from 12 - 8pm except for Sundays and Mondays.
Artellewa, 19 Mohamed Ali El-Eseary street, Ard El-Lewa, Giza
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