Youssef Nabil (Egyptian, b. 1972)

Youssef Nabil has established himself as one of the most influential artist photographers of his generation. Growing up in the cinematic Cairo, Youssef was intoxicated with the golden age of its stars. His works draw inspiration from his childhood memories of black and white films filled with glamour, elegance and melodrama.

Works from his Cinematic Series such as Simone in Downtown Bar, Cairo, 1997 are examples of these early explorations of the consciousness where the tableau is carefully constructed. This combined with the use of the age old technique of hand-coloured photographs, Youssef constructs a work that is both beautiful and conflicting, inhabiting a sense of the enigmatic.