The Instagram Pages Archiving Pictures of Egypt As We Know It

Archiving does not solely involve building a repository of culturally relevant information. Archiving serves as a living, breathing mechanism that is wholly contingent upon collective memory. It demands consistent engagement, calling upon us to wade through endless material to eventually construct a puzzle of the past, through which we can glimpse a faded image of our history. These Instagram pages have done the work to archive Egypt’s living memory, giving concrete forms to our shared vision of the country, the one not often shared in foreign media and experiences… Egypt as we know it.

Shababekna

Forcefully portraying liminal spaces, Shababekna (translating from Arabic into ‘Our Windows’), bridges the gap between the intimate and the public spheres. Saturated with images of balconies - and the associated balaconat culture of our upbringing -  Shababekna offers an outpour of personal motifs that, once seen in the context of their Instagram feed, render themselves into a collage of ‘the bigger picture’.

Doors of Cairo

Is a page that prides itself on indulging in simple pleasures, a ‘doorway’ into various parallel universes existing across all walks of Egypt. Doors of Cairo beautifully showcases how one can re-construct perspective, to make room for new stories to evolve.  

Archiving Heliopolis

Archiving Heliopolis captures the many nuances of one of Cairo’s oldest and most historically significant cities. Riddled with quaint pictures taken through the lenses of various passers-by, it is a uniquely romantic that shifts what may be seen, from a modern perspective, as decay; into nostalgic beauty.  

Cairo Untitled 

To document something as time fights the impulse to tear it apart. This is the precise art of archiving, a feat Cairo Untitled executes with grace. Cairo Untitled carefully maintains what is conventionally deemed obsolete, with elegantly shot pictures of structures falling apart, making these images the pillars keeping them upright. 

Downtown Cairo

Downtown Cairo, which serves as both a corporate hub and a cultural backlog, compels you to describe your own archive. To release your inner flaneur and let them roam the streets untethered.