Cairo Dream

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.

Anthony Hamboussi  is a photographer, born in Brooklyn, New York in 1969. His work has been exhibited in the Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, International Center of Photography, MoMA/PS1, Americas Society, Queens Museum and SculptureCenter, New York. He has published two monographs, Newtown Creek: A Photographic Survey of New York’s Industrial Waterway and Cairo Ring Road.  He has co-authored two books; What is Affordable Housing? with the Center for Urban Pedagogy and LIC in Context with Place in History.  Hamboussi has received grants from the Aaron Siskind Foundation, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Jerome Foundation, En Foco, and the New York State Council on the Arts in Architecture, Planning & Design. He is the founder of L Nour Editions a non-profit publisher specializing in photo books by artists from the Middle East and their diaspora. Hamboussi currently teaches at City College in New York and lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter.