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Fatma Fahmy wins the first Daniele Tamagni Grant!

Egyptian photographer Fatma Fahmy (28) has won the first edition of the Daniele Tamagni Grant. She’ll get to spend a fully paid-for year (tuition and living expenses included) at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Italian photographer Daniele Tamagni who won both an ICP Infinity Award and a World Press Photo Award and was best known for documenting the fashionable dandies of the Congo, passed away in 2017. The grant, set up by his family, provides funding for a scholarship for higher education and is designed to sponsor young and emerging photographers. The spirit of this initiative promotes the dissemination of the African culture, its creativity, the impact of its visual aesthetics on the continent and the diaspora and the in-depth exploration of the photographic media.

Fahmy was selected from a group of over 100 submissions from 25 countries, no small feat! The jury said: “We were impressed by Fatma’s strong storytelling, with images rich of poetry, values, nostalgia. Fatma focuses her attention on societies and communities still holding and preserving their traditional and ancient roots, creating respectful images amplifying such historical and environmental bonds, shining lights over people’s lives.”

Her winning project is called “Once There Was a Tram” and documents Alexandria’s 19th century tram network. Fahmy says that what drew her to the tram was an urge to explore it’s inner world. Was it a reflection of it’s outer one?

What we get feels like a confidential look at people going about their daily lives at a moment in time, a slice of Alexandria in 2019. Looks, gestures, expressions, metered out as if no one is looking. You can feel the rhythm of life and the effect of external pressures on them. You can feel the intensity of their day, the dignity of each passenger. With each passenger, being there, entering or getting off the tram, a story comes and another goes. Life, live-streamed. You wonder about their fate, their destination…

Fatma Fahny is based in Cairo. She’s a new contributor to Everyday Africa & Everyday Egypt.

The Daniele Tamagni Grant was juried by, among others, Daniele’s father Giordano, Lekgetho Makola (head of the Market Photo Workshop), Martina Bacigalupo, (photographer and picture editor at 6Mois), Sara Sozzani Maino (deputy editor Vogue Italia and head of Vogue Talents) and Ekow Eshun (writer, curator and editor in chief of Tank Magazine).

–Samantha Reinders

Related Articles
Obituary: Daniele Tamagni, 43, Photographer of International Fashion and Style
Framing Everyday Africa
Riding the Subway Around the World

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