The photo that inspired Egyptian artist Nour El Massry to take other photos: a terrace in an old building in Cairo.
Nour El Massry
hide caption
toggle caption
Nour El Massry
In 2019, Nour El Massry took a photo that would change his life: he took a photo of a large terrace in a historic building in Cairo’s Garden City district. Although the facades surrounding it were old and dusty, the tiled floor of the balcony, housing a set of wicker chairs made more comfortable by worn kilim rugs, was spotless. He uploaded the image to Instagram.
The next day, he was surprised to find that the post had gone viral. People from all over the world were sharing it on social media. “It elicited emotional responses of comfort and tranquility, of nostalgia and connection,” he says.
But El Massry, 29, an Egyptian photographer, art director and decorator based in Cairo, thought he could do better. “It was nice, but it wasn’t my favorite photo I’ve ever taken. So I decided to show my vision.”
Since then, he has regularly posted photos and photo collages of Egyptian interiors, streets and architecture on his Instagram, @nour_elmassry. Many of his images seem to have been taken in another era. “Cairo is a diverse city with different histories and styles: Islamic, Coptic, Italian, British, French,” he says. “We live in a museum.”
And although the greater Cairo region is a megacity of around 22 million people, El Massry chooses to point his camera beyond the “chaos and overcrowding” to capture places that look “like a dream” , he said. This includes a serene view of a felucca, or wooden sailboat, floating on the Nile; two potted plants sunning themselves on a balcony; and a grand Art Deco-style entrance to an apartment building.
“My goal is to make my art look like a painting,” he says of his aesthetic, inspired by the works of Rembrandt, Michelangelo and Hussein Bicar, an Egyptian artist who painted in the Cubist style. If a photo does not meet this standard, he will sometimes enhance the moonlight, add birds flying above, or even frame the image with another, perhaps a window of an Islamic-style building.
Here is a selection of his images and art:
A view of the Great Pyramids of Giza taken from a hotel on a hot morning in 2022. El Massry says he digitally added birds to “look like the dream I would like to wake up in.”
Nour El Massry
hide caption
toggle caption
Nour El Massry
A view of the Great Pyramids of Giza taken from a hotel on a hot morning in 2022. El Massry says he digitally added birds to “look like the dream I would like to wake up in.”
Nour El Massry
Two French architectural style buildings in downtown Cairo. El Massry studied Egyptian architecture at Helwan University, where he specialized in set design, the study of creating stage environments such as lighting and ambiance, and production design ..
Nour El Massry
hide caption
toggle caption
Nour El Massry
El Massry took this photo during a visit to a beloved friend’s studio in Cairo, just before sunset on an autumn day in 2021. “It was a moment of warmth – and I love how this view shows that Cairo has a mix of old and modern buildings,” he says.
Nour El Massry
hide caption
toggle caption
Nour El Massry
A view of Cairo’s ancient Al-Azhar Mosque, established in 972 under the Fatimid Caliphate, and the Qalawun complex, built in 1285, on a November night in 2023. El Massry wanted the photo to look “like a scene from opening of a film inspired by “Arabian Nights”, he therefore enhanced the color of the moonlight and the glow of the minarets, and added birds flying in the sky.
Nour El Massry
hide caption
toggle caption
Nour El Massry
El Massry took this photo of a felucca sailing on the Nile in southern Cairo one morning in 2022. He digitally framed the image with a photo of a window in a former antiques store and, in his style characteristic, added a bird or two.
Nour El Massry
hide caption
toggle caption
Nour El Massry
El Massry took this photo of a felucca sailing on the Nile in southern Cairo one morning in 2022. He digitally framed the image with a photo of a window in a former antiques store and, in his style characteristic, added a bird or two.
Nour El Massry
The dining room of an old Egyptian house on a hot day in the Haram district of Giza in Cairo. “In 2022, while walking near this house, I was attracted by its lush and plant-filled entrance,” he says, so he decided to knock on the door of one of the apartments. “An old man, like my grandfather, opened the door and let me in” to take a photo. “I found the perfect dining room, I didn’t change a thing.”
Nour El Massry
hide caption
toggle caption
Nour El Massry
A flower shop in Zamelek, Cairo, near El Massry’s alma mater. “It was raining, the atmosphere was full of beautiful memories and I thought it was a romantic photo,” he says. El Massry moved to Cairo from Damietta, a port city in northern Egypt, 12 years ago to attend university – and he fell in love with the city.
Nour El Massry
hide caption
toggle caption
Nour El Massry
A classic Mercedes-Benz in front of an old building in Zamalek, Cairo. The scene “is reminiscent of an old Egyptian film,” explains El Massry, who is inspired by Shadi Abdel Salam, an Egyptian filmmaker from the 1960s. “Abdel Salam tried to show Egypt in a good way, but also in a a real way.”
Nour El Massry
hide caption
toggle caption
Nour El Massry
The interior of Bayt al-Kritliyya, an Islamic house built in 1632. The image, he said, was a portal to a different world. “I see photography as a means of healing,” says El Massry. “In Egypt, life is not so easy these days.” The economy is struggling, there is a lot of poverty and the war in the neighboring Gaza Strip has made life difficult. “So I try to make my photography a source of inspiration.”
Nour El Massry
hide caption
toggle caption
Nour El Massry
NPR News
