Love, Kindness, and Good Light

Photography By Ahmed Abdelshafi

Photographer Ahmed Abdelshafi opens up about how to grow as a photographer, chasing the sun, and capturing his two favorite people.

Cairo, Egypt

What is your history as a photographer?

I got my first camera at 2019, even though I did mobile photography for a while, I got introduced to photography back when I was around 6, I had a tutor at home, he had a mobile from America and it had a camera. It was mind blowing at this time so I started taking it from him and took pictures of everything and I absolutely fell in love with it.

How would you describe your work? What makes it unique?

I like my photographs to be emotionally provoking and to stick with one’s mind for a bit.

What makes me unique is the cinema-like look my pictures tend to have.

How have you grown as an artist since you first began?

Even though my old pictures weren’t terrible, they became insanely better, having learnt about lighting, color theory composition, & editing.

I’m convinced that the only way to grow better is to always put yourself in comparison to the greatest photographers ever and judge if they’re comparable.

Tell the story behind your favorite image.

It’s so hard describing one picture as an absolute best, but I would go for this one

It was a cloudy summer day (this is rare to see in Egypt) and my absolute favorite two people on earth are laughing and playing with each other (my grandmother and my niece), grand mother is radiating out love & kindness and my little niece is joyful and happy.

I loved everything about these images.

What do you think has been your biggest struggle as a photographer?

Being a full time marketeer, a student, and a photographer isn’t the easiest.

I try my best to manage my time between these 3 sections.

What is your process? Are most of your photos planned or spontaneous?

I usually just pick the location of the shoot, and when I’m there I place everything and try to get the best out of this location, I always chase the sun and usually place it behind the subject as I believe back light gives the pictures a sense of depth and ambiguity.

For the majority of my pictures they’re not planned, whenever I see good lighting I start taking pictures, I even tell the model every time I’m shooting, ”forget that I’m here and continue what you’re doing” in order to get the most spontaneous pictures.