Hana Gamal

Time in Disguise

Cairo, Egypt

Hana Gamal is an Egyptian photographer and visual artist born and raised in Cairo. Her journey with photography began in 2011 and quickly evolved into becoming her voice and greatest passion in life.

Hana’s visual approach is an anthropological one. Deeply sensitive, emotional by nature and passionate about psychology, poetry and visual art, her work ventures deep into the chaotic, complex, and poetic inner world of the human soul, its interconnectedness with the outer world, our perception of it, and its impact on us. 

Hana is a recipient of the AAF x PHmuseum Prize. She is a member of both the African Photojournalist Database and Women Photograph, initiatives that elevate the voices of women visual journalists. Her work has been featured in various local and internationalpublications, including The New York Times, Huck Magazine, and The Huffington Post.

Her art has been exhibited in galleries and biennals in France, the UK, Berlin, Ireland, Dubai, Ethiopia, Morocco and Lebanon. 

Contact: hanagamal.com | @hanaperlas | hanaperlas@gmail.com

Save 20 EUR when acquiring 2 pictures from this series, 40 EUR when acquiring 3.

Hana Gamal, on her triptych

"The woman is a Sudanese henna dancer (henna is the Egyptian version of a bachelorette party) celebrating a bride, dancing in her tailored red glittery traditional robe and veil. Visually, it was a beautiful scene. But as I stood there watching her dance her heart out, I didn’t see just beauty. I saw intense melancholy and contradictory emotions, fragility and strength, rage and softness, love and longing, pain covered with a fake smile. It was like her whole world was falling apart but there she was, dancing it all away."

BEHIND THE PROCESS

ON EMBRACING IMPERFECTION

"When I first started working on this project, I knew it had to be shoot it on film mainly because I wanted to take it slow and find space and time for meditation and introspection. But as it evolved, I felt there was something visually missing – the realness of it all. This is when I switched to expired films. I think the society that we now live in is programmed to believe that everything should be perfect – crystal clear details, sharp quality photographs, perfectly beautiful colors; and there lies the irony, because the world is nowhere near perfect."