The Journey/ Autobiography

The journey truly begins the moment you realize you are merely a passerby, and that everything around you is a series of vivid scenes in a continuous narrative you can observe as you please, or melodies through which you compose your symphony. At times, the game flirts with you, enticing you to become its hero, and at others, it places you among the reserves, filled with hope for an adventurous quest of heroism, only to eventually ignore you entirely, to the point of insignificance.

I continue what I once wrote under "An Account of the Tale" a series of short stories, adding a new chapter to the stories that have accompanied me. The camera helped me record what was happening externally, perhaps to remember what passed within me, and to see the hidden beauty in the scattered, broken, and worn-out things. These are but many chapters I will one day recount separately.

I wander through the city streets and alleys, as a true lover of Cairo, a city that never sleeps. Her eyes carry all the meanings of joy and sorrow at once, evoking in my soul the words of songs and hymns, releasing the scents of musk and incense in my memories, and always promising me dreams hanging on power lines alongside the birds. A parallel history intertwined with my human emotions in countless significant moments.

The images accumulate, each carrying a memory. I observe the world through the camera lens… then I switch lenses, change my direction, and put aside the bag filled with lenses in a large box lying next to the couch in our home. I find that the memory of my phone can store more photos and this tempts me to stroll under the rain, capturing more moments that instantly appear before my eyes on the phone screen—with no fear of running out of film.

I recall those closed darkrooms and the long waits… How life has changed so quickly, changing with it my perspective of things, and how my emotions evolved.

The journey is all these things combined, and it is a multitude of attempts to document my passage through life and every detail I’ve experienced. Or perhaps it is a stop along the road, a moment to reflect on what has happened before I continue my journey.

Mona Abdel Karim

Cairo-based Photographer and Editor. Mona has been an art editor for more than 15 years. She offers a criticism as well as interviews with  fine artists based in Egypt and the MENA region for different newspapers and magazine.

She has been in charge of fine arts section in Akhbar Aladab weekly newspaper since  2012 . She has been both a writer and photographer since 1999, even before her graduation. 

Mona’s passion is the sole motive and catalyst in every step she takes. Although she is interested in all fields of photography, her main passion, and thus focus, is more on visual arts, people, folklore, colour and texture. She thinks it is meaningful to view the world from a camera's lens.

Mona is aspiring to more exposure nationally and internationally. She is looking forward to recognition as a photographer as well as a fine arts critic. She has on-going projects as well as future planned projects.

One of her projects is Egyptian Men of Letters, which is a photographic documentation of Egypt’s contemporary novelists and poets. Some of these photos were published in newspapers, magazines, and on book covers, such as those capturing Famous Egyptian literary figures: Gamal Al-Ghitani, Bahaa Taher, Makawi Said, Fatima Qandil, Karim Abdel Salam, Ghada Al-Absy, and others.