Jonathan Jasberg
Cairo - A Beautiful Thing Is Never Perfect
Selections from an ongoing project in Cairo, Egypt. The title is derived from an ancient Egyptian proverb \'A Beautiful Thing Is Never Perfect\'. Most visitors to Cairo make a quick trip to the Pyramids and are perhaps driven to a Museum or two before making their way to another City such as Luxor. This project aims to take a deeper look and go beyond the pyramids, at the immense complexity, rich history, and beautiful present day that can only be experienced in Cairo. Areas and neighborhoods that both tourists, and locals not from that area, may never see or appreciate otherwise. Early in my photography in Cairo, I was in a neighborhood that seemingly never sees foreigners and stopped by an older gentleman who was confused as to why I was taking photographs. I was captivated by the architecture and the scene, oozing culture and history, that was playing out before my eyes and I gestured to it and in a state of excitement said \'just look at it, it\'s beautiful!\' The older man looked, looked back at me even more confused and shaking his head and responded \'beautiful? it\'s an old mess\' and walked on. As I began to explore deeper into Cairo, I was sometimes warned from people in one neighborhood not to go to the other neighborhood and vise versa. I showed photos to locals that I had met and they were surprised that I had gone certain places and stated they wouldn\'t go there. More importantly, they appreciated the content, the beauty, the things that so easily go unseen once one is too familiar with their surroundings. In winter of 2021 will be making my 4th trip to Cairo to continue work on this project
