Covid -19, was/is by all accounts a global catastrophe that has and still is impacting practically all economic, social and human activity, like never before in recent history. One tiny group of people, that is hit particularly hard and in a very specific manner is street photographers (of which I proudly claim to be one).
We roam the streets wherever we are, almost daily, eyes alert, camera in hand, like hunters looking for the prey.
In our case, the prey could be a face, a fleeting glance, a momentary situation, a place, a tree, a playful cat or dog in the street, a discreet act of kindness, a story of injustice and hardship, an expression of love , an object of beauty… the list goes on…
We do not need much to quench the thirst of our passion – mobility, the ability to walk the streets, travel etc.
And People.
Covid-19 has shackled us on both counts, in a way that felt like a fish would when out of the water, deprived of the elements of our survival as street raconteurs…
However, street photgraphers are renowned for their creativity and resilience, after all we are artists, so we can not just still restlessly toying with beautiful cameras, waiting for our freedom, we need to improvise, adapt and do with what we have – it’s time for artistic creativity overdrive.
For me personally, I am probably a bit more fortunate in that situation: in Egypt we did not really suffer the full brunt of severe complete lockdown, I was still able to move about a little bit, even though in mostly empty, sometimes eerie surroundings. I was also able to move from the City to the sea side on normally bustling Red Sea coast, now sadly devoid of tourists.
I had just received my X-Pro3 at the tail end of last year, so I didn’t really have much chance to take it out and about, and my travel plans to NYC, Paris and HK were of course all cancelled, so rather than sitting there, fingers twitching, I went about shooting whatever caught my eyes – be it around the corner, in my office, at home, even doing some self-timer selfies…
It is interesting to observe, that when restricted in one aspect, still unable to travel and explore the far ways lands, I started to actually look around my immediate everyday surrounds, perhaps seeing things for the first time even though such objects have always been there for as long as I can recall, such as those probably hundred year old trees by my house, with those tiny expressions of life sprouting out, even though the tree itself has been chopped from above the knee sort of speak.
All in all, I have to admit, an avid traveller that I am, in all honesty, there is so much to explore and document all around me…
Armed with my X-Pro3 and alternating between my favourite Fujifilm lenses (XF35mm f/1.4 and XF23mm f/2), I went about Cairo, and the Red Sea resort of El Gouna doing just that.
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