Photo of the Week: Anthony Hamboussi

Egyptian-American photographer, publisher and educator Anthony Hamboussi was born and raised in Brooklyn, with his long-term photographic projects exploring the built environment, infrastructure, memory and belonging in cities including Cairo, New York and Paris.

His Cairo-based work includes 'Cairo Ring Road', published in 2020, and 'Cairo Dream', published in 2025. He is also the founder of L Nour Editions, a nonprofit publisher devoted to photobooks by artists from the SWANA region and its diasporas.

What’s the story behind this image? Where and when was it taken?

I made this photograph underneath the Sixth of October Bridge in Cairo in 2009, using a 4×5 film camera. It was one of the first images I made for 'Cairo Ring Road', and it helped establish the direction of the project.

I had returned to Cairo for the first time since childhood and was trying to understand the city through its built environment. I was drawn to this view because so many parts of Cairo seemed to occupy the same space: the bridge hovering overhead, the railway and tram tracks, the surrounding homes and the solitary figure below. The image felt quiet, but it held the density and contradictions of the city.

I was not interested in photographing Cairo through its monuments or creating a single explanation of the city. I wanted to remain with its ordinary landscapes and allow them to raise questions about how people live, how the city grows and what remains unseen.

Why did you choose this particular image?

I chose this photograph because it marks the moment when the project found its visual language. It is both a record of my return to Cairo and the beginning of a longer attempt to understand the city.