Egypt: A Photographer’s Journey in the footsteps of the Pharaohs
As a portrait and documentary photographer based in Brest, I spent a month in Egypt exploring both major and lesser-known ancient sites along the Nile Valley. This journey, both intense and inspiring, profoundly impacted me: it transformed my approach to photography, my perception of light, and my understanding of memory. Here is a brief account of this immersion into a land where every stone still echoes the voices of the ancients.
Saqqara funerary complex, a vast necropolis dating back to around 2600 BCE.
A Lesson in Humility
History has a brutal way of putting us in our place. Walking in the footsteps of the pharaohs, photographing millennia-old reliefs and the remnants of forgotten temples, I experienced a vertigo that few places can provoke. In Egypt, the past is not behind us: it is everywhere. It asserts itself. It envelops.
Accustomed to capturing the emotions of contemporary faces in my studio, I had to readjust: rethink the notion of time. Accept that some things endure far better than we do.
Alexandria: In the Shadow of Empires
Alexandria was my final stop, but in truth, it’s always been first in my heart. A cultural and intellectual capital during the Hellenistic era, founded by Alexander the Great, this city still carries the breath of Cleopatra, the Ptolemies, and the lost manuscripts of the famous library. What struck me was the coexistence of ruins and contemporary chaos. I scuba-dove into the harbor to photograph the submerged ruins of the ancient royal palace: broken columns, fragments buried under algae, traces of grandeur swallowed by the mediterranean. An engulfed yet vibrant memory.
My camera never left my side. Every street corner, every reflection, every texture tells a story. Alexandria is not a city frozen in time; it is a city that pulses beneath the surface.
Temple of Dendera in Egypt, commissioned by Ptolemy XII, father of Cleopatra. It gives a sense - however faint - of the sheer scale of ancient architecture.
Dendera: the Silence of the Goddesses
The Temple of Hathor at Dendera is one of the most intact sites I visited. Less touristy than Karnak or Luxor, it offers a rare experience: a face to face with sacred architecture. The columns are massive, finely decorated. The still colorful frescoes depict mythological and political scenes. One encounters the figures of Cleopatra VII and her son Caesarion, immortalized in stone. Photographically, this place allowed me to reconnect with my portraitist’s language. I treated the frescoes like faces. I worked with lines, shadows, gazes petrified by time.
Giza, Saqqara, Dahshur: Confronting Immensity
We think we know the pyramids. We believe we’ve “seen” them through images. But that’s a misconception. Until you stand before them, photograph them under the stark, raking light, you can barely grasp their power.
I spent hours at Giza, Saqqara, and Dahshur. Observing the shifting shadows, the contours softening throughout the day. Framing, recomposing, striving to reveal the silence inhabiting these perfect geometric forms. Inside, photographing walls covered in hieroglyphs, I pondered: am I also attempting to defy oblivion? Is every portrait I create, in its own way, an attempt at permanence?
The Nile: Source of Life
The Nile is more than a river. It’s a matrix. A backbone shaping the landscape, culture, and daily rhythms. Following it is traversing worlds. I traveled its banks by car, felucca, sometimes on foot. At every turn, I discovered a different Egypt: more intimate, more alive.
The palm trees, markets, everyday scenes—all are photogenic. But it’s at sunset that the magic happens. The light turns golden, almost liquid. Contrasts intensify. I worked with this natural light as I do with my studio lighting: with precision, with emotion.
Hieroglyphic details. In Egypt, history is etched into every crack, on every wall.
What Egypt Taught Me
This journey is more than an adventure. It has become a natural extension of my work. It resonates with my project Long Live the Fallen World, which questions memory, heritage, the relationship to our roots.
In Egypt, I saw how light can become language. How an image can outlive its creator. I now apply these lessons in my studio portrait work. I seek that same intensity. That same gravity. That same desire for transmission. Egypt hasn’t just enriched my photographic practice. It has redefined my way of seeing. This journey reminded me why I photograph: to freeze what is fleeting, to honor what remains. To build bridges between the ephemeral and the eternal.
And you? Have you ever been to Egypt? What does it mean to you? Let me know in the comments bellow and feel free to share your experience in this timeless country!
