Laura El-Tantawy is a an Egyptian photographer living between Cairo and London. She is represented by VII Mentor. She was born in Worcestershire, England to Egyptian parents & grew up between Saudi Arabia & Egypt.
In 2002, El-Tantawy started her career as a newspaper photographer with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel & Sarasota Herald-Tribune (USA). In 2006, she became freelance so she could focus on pursuing personal projects. Her work has been recognized across several international awards including 2013 Finalist PHE Ojodepez Award for Human Values, 2013 Winner Cortona on the Move OFF CIRCUIT, 2013 HM Fotovisura Grant as well as being selected in 2012 in FOAM Magazine’s annual TALENT edition, 2012 Finalist Manuel Rivera- Ortiz Foundation for International Photography Grant, 2012 4th Place Photocrati Fund, 2011 Finalist Prix BayeuxCalvados des Correspondants de Guerre, 2011 Finalist, Ian Parry Scholarship, 2011 Finalist BURN magazine Emerging Photographer Fund (EPF). Additionally the work has been exhibited internalltionally, including solo and group shows in the US, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
El-Tantawy is a graduate of the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia (USA) with a dual degree journalism and political science.
IN THE SHADOW OF THE PYRAMIDS
In 2005 I began to document the lives of everyday Egyptians as an Egyptian. I took pictures of people shopping in the market, families on weekend outings, the first wave of political opposition protests led by the “Kefaya” (Enough) movement, people living on the fringes of society in burial grounds and others living on the edge of humanity among piles of household waste, hospital discard and delin rats.
Every picture I take in Egypt is selfishly part of a life document for my own memory, but also for the Emory of a nation. This is how I increasingly feel. I photograph life. His is what inspires me – I have consciously averted ugliness in search of beauty in a country I know is not always beautiful.
In the Shadow of the Pyramids is intended as a portrayal of my country through my own eyes. Guided by my childhood memories and a struggle to understand a place that should be familiar but isn’t, this is my journey through Egypt to explore the essence of Egyptian identity in the hope of coming to terms with my own from the time of Mubarak to the revolution and Egypt’s looming future.
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