In the Shadow of the Pyramids is the current project by photographer Laura El-Tantawy.

Laura El-Tantawy , 2011 by Steven Lee

I met Laura briefly at the National Gallery cafe to talk about her fund raising efforts through emphas.is a crowd funding website to enable her to complete the final chapter in her documentation of the popular uprising by the ordinary people of Egypt. These events which centred in Cairo, and particularly Tahrir Square was broadcasted all over the world by mainstream news channels and literally shook the leaders of the Arab world off their feet.

Laura’s photographic style is unique, part journalistic, part documentary and part fine art, raw and powerfully emotive, and totally artistic. Trained as a journalist and worked as a newspaper photographer in the USA, she is passionately absorbed to covering the forthcoming elections in a ‘new’ Egypt in October and November.

[Check out Magnum’s David Alan Harvey’s skype interview with Laura here. DAH’s BURN magazine are Laura’s media partner on this project and they sponsored her in February to cover the revolution in Egypt. Their continued support now is part of their counted effort to see the project through to print as a book.]

Laura will be giving a talk about her latest project, accompanied with a slide projection of photographs taken before and during the uprising in Egypt. This is a fund raising evening (non-obligatory), which is open to anyone who would like to learn a bit more about the events unfolding in Egypt, her style of photography and her first hand experience on the ground. Your support is most appreciated. Watch the video below for her personal address, and help spread the message. Apologies for the rather short notice of this event, but I’m sure it will be a great evening out!

Laura has indicated that the first 20 RSVPs will receive a special ‘memento’ postcard print from her on the evening!

Venue

Green Cardamom Light Gallery, 5a Porchester Place, London W2 2BS

Time : 7:00 to 10:30pm : Free entry

Date : Friday, 30th September 2011

RSVP to : info@explorenation.net or leave a comment below.

(Nearest tube : Marble Arch or Edgware Road)

About Laura

Laura El-Tantawy is an Egyptian photojournalist & artist based in London. She studied journalism & political science at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia (USA) & started her career as a newspaper photographer with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Sarasota Herald-Tribune (USA). In 2005, she started work on her first book documenting a changing Egypt. As part of the urge to understand the issues, in 2009, she accepted a six-month fellowship at the University of Oxford (UK) to research free speech in Egyptian media.

In 2008 she was nominated and accepted to take part in Reflexions Masterclass, a two-year photography seminar directed by Italian photographer Giorgia Fiorio and French curator Gabriel Bauret. Her work has been published & exhibited in the US, Europe, Asia & the Middle East. She exclusively works on self-initiated projects.

Laura is the founder of www.illdieforyou.com, a project documenting farmer suicides in rural India.
www.lauraeltantawy.com

This event is organised by explorenation.net