Stars from Egypt's golden age of performing arts captured by leading photographers, from Umm Kulthum to Abdel Halim Hafez.
Egypt Through the Lens is a four-part series that captures how photographers recorded Egypt's modern history over 150 years: its kings, presidents, politics, conflicts and cinema.
The latest episode shows how photographers captured the golden age of music and screen in Egypt in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Photojournalist Samir Ghazouli recalls meeting some of Egypt’s greatest artists, such as the legendary singer Umm Kulthum. He sometimes hated the way he looked in photographs because of a thyroid problem and often bought the original negatives to destroy them. Another music star was Abdel Halim Hafez, but a terminal illness brutally killed him in his prime. Hafez carefully managed his PR image after he fell ill, publishing only specially chosen photos that showed his personal pain and suffering. All the photographers in the film speak enthusiastically about the personalities they met and reflect on how the photos they took of these stars, who were famous throughout the Arab world, conveyed a sense of immortality.
