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Beyond Here Is Nothing

Laura El-Tantawy

A Meditation on Home and Belonging.

“Enclosed between four walls, the sound of silence never seemed louder. It’s claustrophobic. I wait for the phone to ring, check for emails obsessively, eat everything out of the fridge. The hunger remains. I feel like if I dig my hand deep into my soul, I will find nothing. The awareness I am experiencing is unspeakable. Faces change when we meet. Is their solitude reflected in mine? There is an awkward silence.” Laura El-Tantawy.

Beyond Here Is Nothing is a series meditating on home. A place of belonging, a tranquil state of mind; a nostalgic memory or an imaginary destination – home is a perpetual possibility El-Tantawy is journeying to reach. Her personal experience growing up in contrasting cultures is the window to an intimate and emotive visual exploration of the unsettling feeling of rootlessness, the mental burden of loneliness and the constant search for belonging in unfamiliar places. Drifting between the physical and the whimsical, the work reveals itself through layers of images and words. A mirror of dispositions. A living visual experience harmonizing with time.

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Laura El-Tantawy

Laura El-Tantawy

Egypt

Laura El-Tantawy is an Egyptian photographer. She was born in Worcestershire, England to Egyptian parents. She attended high school in Saudi Arabia, started university in Cairo, Egypt and finished in the US. She reads, writes and speaks Arabic, thinks and dreams in English and feels both. This unusual blend carries through her photographic work. Her photography is inspired by questions on her identity - exploring social and environmental issues pertaining to her background.

In 2002, she started her career as a newspaper photographer with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Sarasota Herald-Tribune (USA). In 2006, she became freelance to pursue personal projects. She is a graduate of the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia (USA) with dual degrees in journalism and political science. Additional education includes an MA in Art and Media Practice from the University of Westminster (UK/2011) and a Research Fellowship at the University of Oxford (UK/2009).

Her first book, In the Shadow of the Pyramids, offers a first person account exploring memory and identity against the backdrop of her native Egypt’s political turmoil from 2005 to 2014. Self published on Jan. 25, 2015 to coincide with the anniversary of the Egyptian revolution, it has been named as one of the best photography books of 2015 by several critics and book collectors. It earned the nomination for the prestigious Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2016.

  • Previous Gallery Irish Travellers - Unwelcome In Their Own Land
    Previous
  • Next Gallery The Other Side
    Next
  • Menu
  • Exhibition Home
  • Change Gallery
    • Pest Control
      Tania Franco Klein
    • The Red Road Project
      Carlotta Cardana
    • You Gave The Virgin A New Heart
      Giulia Bianchi
    • Irish Travellers - Unwelcome In Their Own Land
      Stephen Gerard Kelly
    • The Other Side
      Griselda San Martin
    • Hidden Under An Indian Sun
      Ed Kashi & Tom Laffay
    • The Hunted - Albinos
      Daniel Rodrigues
    • Nama Bu
      Karen Paulina Biswell
    • Umaskhenkethe Likhaya Lam
      Nobukho Nqaba
Close Menu Exhibition Home Main Menu
  • Pest Control
    Tania Franco Klein
  • The Red Road Project
    Carlotta Cardana
  • You Gave The Virgin A New Heart
    Giulia Bianchi
  • Irish Travellers - Unwelcome In Their Own Land
    Stephen Gerard Kelly
  • The Other Side
    Griselda San Martin
  • Hidden Under An Indian Sun
    Ed Kashi & Tom Laffay
  • The Hunted - Albinos
    Daniel Rodrigues
  • Nama Bu
    Karen Paulina Biswell
  • Umaskhenkethe Likhaya Lam
    Nobukho Nqaba

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