TINTERA Gallery

Creating space: an atelier in Cairo

Faouzi Massrali, Installation views of The Tour exhibition, Barry Iverson

With text by Yasmine El Rashidi, with Zein Khalifa and Heba Farid

TINTERA is a newly opened photographic consultancy with a gallery space in Cairo and an office in London. Its aim is to raise the profile of both contemporary and historical photography in and of Egypt through curated exhibitions, events and research projects. It represents artists from Egypt and elsewhere, emerging and established, with Egypt being the common inspiration in their work, while also managing significant private photograph collections and advising on the acquisition and sales of photographic art.

Egyptian novelist and writer Yasmine El Rashidi spoke with co-founders Zein Khalifa and Heba Farid, both photographers and artists in their own right, asking them about their insights on the space and the vision they have for it.

Yasmine El Rashidi (YR): Am I correct in saying this is the first fine-art gallery in Cairo dedicated to photography? How did this come to be?

Zein Khalifa (ZK): As far as we know we’re the only gallery in Egypt at the moment that focuses solely on photography. Of course there are galleries that showcase photographers and artists working with photography but they also show painting, sculpture etc., We’re interested in elevating the status of photography in Egypt and encouraging an appreciation of the medium. We’re also keen on developing an archive of works made here.

Heba Farid (HF): We’re both photographers ourselves and have been working in various aspects of the field for over 20 years. In Cairo, I participated in setting up CiC (Contemporary Image Collective) in 2004 and worked for CultNat

(Bibliotheca Alexandrina) from 2008 until 2016. Zein, who is based in London, has worked as an independent consultant and handled sales at HackelBury Fine Art. A few years ago we began talking about ways in which we could safeguard what we saw as a haemorrhaging of our photographic heritage. We were hearing stories of families throwing away family photos for lack of an appropriate institution to deposit them in or even an understanding of their importance.

ZK: In many other countries there are important museums dedicated to photography and our initial goal was to set one up in Egypt. Travellers and photographers documented this country from the moment the camera was invented so imagine a museum that offers you entrée to that particular history of the medium. But that’s the ‘big dream’ and in order to get there we first need to start with developing a deeper understanding and appreciation of the role of photography in Egypt, hence Tintera.

YR: That explains a lot; it doesn’t feel like a traditional gallery, and certainly not a ‘photographic consultancy,’ as per your website.

HF: We hesitated a lot with that description. We’ve been told it feels more like an atelier, which is how we maybe think of it too.

YR: Atelier! Precisely. A place where things are made, ideas are born, rather than just finished works displayed. Can you elaborate a little on the different aspects of Tintera.

ZK: We set up Tintera in an apartment of a residential building and have not interfered with the structure of the space at all. Just a year ago this was a family home so I think the first thing you notice is that this is not a typical gallery set up. We hope it feels inviting.

HB: We’re constantly receiving young and established artists with bodies of work that have rarely been seen. Without this kind of space, an inspiring space, that wouldn’t have happened. We didn’t want a traditional white cube per se and yet the display of photography demands a certain quality of light and precision.

ZK: The ‘gallery’ space is what welcomes the visitor and where we hold our exhibitions. This current show includes work by over thirteen photographers. Some have shown internationally and some have never shown before. We also have two other rooms; what we call the ‘preservation room’ and an office space. In the preservation room we are able to work on older collections and it’s also where we carry all our artists’ portfolios.

HF: Also, in the “preservation room” we have a cabinet with many of the historical photographs and negatives we hold and preserve. I am grateful for the training in preservation and collection management I have received over the years, that began in 2005 but became more technically focused through regional initiatives like MEPPI (Middle East Photograph Preservation Initiative). That exposure to best practices has guided our own practices in our care and handling of both historical and contemporary photographs, in creating our displays and in preserving collections we safeguard.

YR: Can you tell us a little about some of the artists in your current show.

ZK: Ibrahim Ahmed is a young Egyptian mixed media artist. Through staged, studio self-portraits Ahmed works on photo collages that examine the power relations in the construct of masculinity. Bryony Dunne spent several years living in Egypt exploring the legacies of colonialism. Nabil Boutros has widely exhibited abroad but is hardly recognized in Egypt even though his work predominantly deals with his relationship to his country. On display here are

works from Boutros’ Nocturnes series. It’s been wonderful seeing people react to these images. They are nostalgic and capture everyday scenes that perhaps are overlooked by others. Xenia Nikolskaya, a Cairo-based Russian/Swedish artist who spent six years photographing the neglected ‘cosmopolitan architecture’ of Egypt in her series Dust (2006-2012). Many of the buildings Nikolskaya has beautifully captured tell a rich history of the country but are now sadly being demolished so this is really quite an important body of work.

YR: It is transformative, to walk into here. Once you enter, its breath- taking, bright, expansive and meticulously curated.

ZK: I think people have been excited about seeing different representations of familiar places and ideas. Barry Iverson’s exhibition The Tour, really challenged viewers’ expectations of photography and the representation of Egypt in a very fun way.

HF: Exactly. Part of building an appreciation for the medium as ‘art’ is about re-contextualizing it, introducing multiple ways to see, and to enculture people to photographic art practices.

YR: Your current exhibition has archival works, which aren’t for sale?

ZK: Yes, some of the archival works you see here come from the Attaya Gaddis collection. Gaddis was a photographer who apprenticed under Antonio Beato in the very late 19th century. He is considered one of the earliest Egyptian photographers and we are working on making his relatively unknown story and archive of photographs more accessible to a larger public.

YR: Is there a market for photography in Egypt?

ZK: Egypt was once an important center and source for the commercial photography market. At the moment mostly people from abroad are collecting this work, although we are starting to build a local collectors’ base. Most of the work has rarely been seen and is very affordable to collect. So, for those in the know, there’s a sense of being at the beginning of something exciting.

Faouzi Massrali, Installation views of The Tour exhibition, Barry Iverson