Mohamed Ezzeldin Abdelmonem from Best Shore Apps Egypt Center won the first prize of the Nov 2009 photography competition holding the theme “memories” on his inspiring picture “Leaving Home”. The same picture was named the picture of the year with a majority of 27% voting for it to gain the first place. This and other winning photos received a thorough review of the judges, and were used in the EMEA 2010 Calendar.

In recognition of Mohamed’s artistic talent, he received his photo framed accompanied with a thank you letter signed by Franc Gentili, Best Shore EMEA Apps Leader. On this occasion, I had a quick chat with Mohamed:

Congratulations on winning the first EMEA photography prize for this year. Can you tell us where was this picture taken and what is the story behind it?

The picture was taken on a train during a trip about 4 years ago. The boy was sitting in front of me and the trip was very long. I saw real expressions and feelings in his face and I wanted to transfer those feelings through the picture, which was one of my inspirations to start a personal photography project about Ramses Railway Station (the main railway station in Cairo). It is about Egyptians coming every day from all over Egypt to the capital, leaving their homes and looking for a better lifestyle in the city.

Have you taken any photography courses, and if yes how did you develop your talent?

As I believe that the talent is not always enough, knowledge is required to strengthen it. I have attended many workshops in visual arts , which started in 2003 at Cairo Opera House with “The Egyptian Salon of Photography”. It added a lot of value to me, and the organizers gave me a lot of support, and then I became a member in their community after one year of practicing and reading on different topics in photography. Afterwards, I attended workshops on various types of visual arts. Lately, I attended a workshop conducted by Spanish artists in the field of “Interactive arts”, which uses electronics and programming in controlling the image and sound. It was an exciting experiment for me to mix technology with art.

Have you participated in any photography competitions outside of HP?

I actually participated in various competitions. Recently, I won the jury’s award from the delegation of European Union in Egypt , and the Golden Award at the Emirates International Photography Competition.

Tell us more about your future photography projects.

Right now, I am participating in an exhibition in Italy “Casoria Contemporary Arts Museum” for African artists . In addition, I am preparing for a solo exhibition on the 1^st of March for a series called “Circle”. I am also planning during the next months to try working in the field of Interactive arts.

Author: Maha El-Fangary
From EMEA Today , Best Shore Application Services EMEA – news and Information website
HP-blog

participating in OLE workshop for interactive video art . it is my second experiment in the media art workshops . I liked that way of mixing art with science , it was very similar to the mix of my Engineering academic studies and my journey in visual arts .

Cairo workshop: October 16- 30, 2009
Alexandria workshop: 25 Nov – 4 Dec

Workshop for the production of ideas/projects around the concept of interactive image and sound, using a combination of free hardware and software platforms (PD and Arduino) to deepen in the use of electronics and programming.
The workshop is intended for art students, artists, designers and educators, contributing to development cultural production in local communities.

OLE
A long term project based on several workshop phases between Cairo and Alexandria, initiated with aims of developing the use of electronic interface within Art creation in Egypt.
The project phases will provide introduction to the technique, experimentation with tools, investigating ideas and concept evaluation.
For more information:
http://www.medrar.org\ole.html

Workshop is organized by:
Medrar and Hangar
http://medrar.org
http://hangar.org

Winning the Golden eye award (Street Photography) from the the 4th Emirates International Photography Competition.
the photo was taken after announcing the results of the competition , with the Italian photographer Olivio Argenti.

Exhibition date : 16th – 31st March 2009
Opening : 7:00 pm , Al-Dhafra Hall , Cultural Foundation , Abu Dahbi , Emirates .

The Delegation of the European Commission in Egypt has the pleasure to inform you that the 30 winning pictures of its first photo competition “Egypt: Life in a Picture” will be exhibited in Toulouse, France on the occasion of the 5th “Le Marathon Des Mots”.
This year’s “Le Marathon Des Mots” will take place from Thursday 11 until Sunday 14 June in Toulouse. Last year, more than 72,000 visitors attended around 200 readings, debates, and performances organized during 4 days and 4 nights in more than 20 venues around Toulouse.
Every year, “Le Marathon Des Mots” honors a literary and artistic capital inviting writers and artists to present the culture of the invited/honored capital. After Lisbon in 2005, Barcelona in 2006, London in 2007, Algiers in 2008, “Le Marathon Des Mots” this year has chosen “Alexandria and Cairo”.
On this occasion, “Le Marathon Des Mots” has invited the exhibition “Egypt: Life in a Picture” at the Theatre National de Toulouse from the 10 to 14 June 2009.
“Egypt: Life in a Picture” was the first photo competition organized by the Delegation of the European Commission in Egypt. The goal of this competition was to stimulate and to promote the creativity of amateur photographers in Egypt and to give them the opportunity to showcase their work and to meet the public.
Composed of a group of eminent artists such as Ramses Marzouk, Chris Bouroncle, Mohamed Gabr, Randa Shaath, Aleya Hamza as well as Javier Menendez who represented the Delegation of the European Commission, the jury selected 30 photos out of 500 that were submitted. The winning pictures were exhibited from the 3rd until the 28th of December 2008 at the Townhouse Gallery, the most active and creative gallery of contemporary art in downtown Cairo.

Links:

www.lemarathondesmots.com

21 January – 29 April 2008
A group exhibition displaying 100 miniature pieces of art that are each 100 mm small. Not confined to any one technique, the pieces include drawing, painting, collage, and photography. The project concept stems from the small size of the Artellewa gallery space, and becomes an exploration of what artists can accomplish within limited space and time.

Links:

http://artellewa.com/100mm-miniature-arts/

A photo during the awards ceremony with the jury, photographers Randa Shaath, javier bonilla and Mohamed Gabr.

The European Commission’s Delegation to Egypt – About us

Winning the Jury’s special mention from the Delegation of the European Commission’s first photography competition in Egypt .

The full article : http://www.delegy.ec.europa.eu/en/News/583.asp

Screening of short movies produced duringthe One Minutes Workshop at the Townhouse Gallery

The event will include also presentation of the One Minutes Project and certificates awarding to participants.Workshop was led by video artists Aukje Dekker and Vava StojadinovicFriday 25 April 2008, 8 pmRawabet Theatre(next to the Factory Space of the Townhouse Gallery)3, Hussein Al Me’mar Pasha St., OffMahmoud Bassiouny St., Downtown,Cairo

theoneminutes.org

thetownhousegallery.com

A part from the article written by Wael Eskander from the Daily News about the one minutes workshop .
Full article: http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=13409
One Minutes Workshop :
A group of impressive, original one-minute videos produced by local artists were screened last week at the Rawabet Theater, marking these amateurs’ first ventures into the motion picture medium.The event was the product of a five-day workshop organized by the Townhouse Gallery and the Netherlands-based One Minutes Foundation. The workshop is part of a larger project called The One Minutes Africa Project.The main objective of the workshop is to provide artists, from across the black continent, with relatively inexpensive video media to express an idea or a concept in just one minute.“Most artists who are not experienced with video find it difficult to produce a video, but when it’s just a one minute video, it seems so much simpler and more encouraging,” says Aukje Dekker, a Dutch coach who toured the world, teaching techniques and principles of this artistic outlet.The idea of one-minute videos originated in the Sandberg Institute in 1999 as part of a fine-arts postgraduate assignment. The concept took off from there and has been welcomed by artists all over the world.