In 2003, photographers Stefan Ruiz and Artin Sarafian independently turned their cameras toward Cairo. Working separately, they were drawn to the city’s people, performers, workers, families, dreamers, and passersby.

Their paths converged at Studio Atro D’Art, Sarafian’s photography studio in downtown Cairo, where the traditions of studio portraiture became a meeting point.

Cairo Portraits brings these two bodies of work together for the first time, moving between the public and intimate, the spontaneous and carefully staged. Together, the photographs offer a portrait of Cairo shaped by its people and by the visual cultures of portraiture and self-representation.

More than two decades later, the photographs take on new meaning. As historic studios disappear under urban change and digital image-making, these photographs offer a record of a city, its people, and a particular moment in the art of photography.

Double-bound book
Curator: Romaisa Baddar
Design: Dania Hany / Onemorefold