Impressions of Egypt
Barry Iverson’s long association with the country led to a stunning collection
American artist Barry Iverson’s father worked in the oil industry, so he spent most of his childhood in the Middle East and Egypt. After graduating, he returned to Egypt and has been living in Cairo for over four decades. He worked as a photojournalist with Time magazine for 25 years, covering stories that have shaped social and political life in the region and witnessing seismic events such as the assassination of Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat. While working on assignments, he also captured with his large format analogue camera the architecture, culture, history and everyday life on the streets of Cairo and other cities he visited. In 1985, he received a Fulbright Scholarship to research the history of photography in Egypt and has been collecting old photographs of the region since then. Important events recalled
Iverson is presenting a collection of stunning photographs that reflect his abiding interest in the history of the Middle East and the history of photography in the region in an exhibition titled The Tour. Each of the artist’s artworks is a composite constructed by juxtaposing archival images from the late 19th and early 20th centuries with his own photographs from the 1980s to the present. The black and white images, rich in detail and tone, have been handpainted with oil, water colour and acrylic paints using an old technique from the early days of photography to create images that delve into the layers of memories and history from ancient to modern times.
In some works, Iverson has transported people from the old pictures, dressed in styles of the time into his photographs of architecture ranging from historic buildings such as the Karnak Temple and the Ottoman era Gawhara Palace to modern apartments and auditoriums.
Other works recall important events. For example, he has placed a picture of an Egyptian delegation that visited the Louvre, Paris in the 1860s in a 2009 photograph he took of the museum.
Similarly, in Harem Revisited, he has created an image reminiscent of 19th-century Orientalist paintings by placing a portrait of a woman from an 1870s photograph on a couch in a room that he specifically photographed for this purpose. The image is a witty comment on the stereotypes about the region perpetuated by Western travellers.
“The idea behind this project was to add a new dynamic to old photographs and create something that is beautiful and meaningful. These images reflect the layers of history and memories that a city or a culture are built on and remind us that some things do not change. The title of my show refers to the ‘Grand Tour’ of Middle Eastern cities taken by Europeans in the old days to learn about the ancient world,” Iverson says.
The Tour will run at Fann a Porter gallery at The Workshop in Jumeirah 1 until March 14.