“I was born in Brooklyn, New York to working class Egyptian parents in the last week of 1969. When I began photographing in Cairo, my intention was to reclaim my identity as an Egyptian and to engage in a dialogue about the environmental conditions that make up the city of Cairo. I set down my camera in public space imagining that I too could be objective. I was led to question my “American” way of thinking by events unfolding around me: a revolution, a military coup, and also, by the ways and generosity of everyday people.

I came to understand that the social implications of photography are very different in Egypt than in the US. In the US, many documentary photographers make photographs in ways which can be invasive or insensitive to others, because they believe it’s their right as individuals to do so. This way of thinking doesn’t hold a lot of water for Egyptians. Responsibility to one’s community over oneself is something I learned in Egypt.

I am considered an outsider in both countries I belong to. I’ve been stopped, detained and arrested while photographing in both countries and labeled an enemy in both countries; terrorist in the US, foreign spy or agitator in Egypt. The work of making the larger body of photographs which includes Cairo Dream, contains the duality of my insider and outsider identity. This identity keeps me one step in and one step out.”