Tintype Cairo | Imagining the past

Cairo's an ancient city | One of the oldest on Earth | It's congested | It's crowded | It's noisy | It's polluted | It's dirty | Egyptians know this | They shrug and remember "Masr Zaman" | Egypt of the Past

Talat Harb Square | French designed downtown

So during this visit as I made the rounds to see family and do errands, I would occasionally take some snaps.  There was no project in mind.  I, as a lifelong photographer, and, as someone who is aging and forgetting, take photos as a record of what I was doing and where.  These snaps were pretty mundane and with the long hours of visiting relatives, I rediscovered the tintype app and started converting images.  I liked what I saw.

The tintype, a process of photography dating by to its early days in the 1860s, makes things look old, historic and mysterious.  

So here are a few galleries from my visit to Cairo |


A sail on the Nile |


In search of traditional pieces for a Getty Villa workshop on Nubian jewelry |


And scenes from the Ataba Market |

A clothing salesman and his display | 

and some street views from the Islamic Quarter |


and going about daily business | Cairo streets |


and some scenes about town |


Nubian relative Karam Mourad's concert at the Prince Taz Palace | Old Cairo

Mohammed Ali Mosque

Cairo from the window of an Uber ride |


Cairo | City of Cats |

ghost cat passes by news stand vendor | Garden City

and in closing .... |

the Rosto chicken and shawarma delivery guys near my mom-in-law's place | Mit Okba | delicious

.... a sunset |

the sun sets as I head into town on one of the newly built highways linking the New Cairo satellite city to downtown |