Moon Dust

Photo Essay by Mohamed Mahdy 

February 16 - March 17, 2022

The Photographic Gallery, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication,  presents the first of a series of exhibitions dedicated to the theme of environmental photography. Moon Dust, a photo essay by Egyptian documentary photographer Mohamed Mahdy, where he captures a close-up of an Egyptian community’s struggle against devastating air pollution.

Moon Dust tells the story of Wadi ElQamar, a residential neighborhood in western Alexandria located less than a mile away from the Alexandria Portland Cement Company. The housing area lies directly in the path of the cement factory’s emission and toxic dust blankets the homes of nearly half of its residents, leading to chronic respiratory diseases and other health issues for the community.

In this visual storytelling project, the camera looks at the lives of the people of Wadi ElQamar better than words ever can. Mahdy’s series of black and white landscape photographs capture the gigantic structure lurking in the background from multiple locations: streets, alleys, playgrounds and through the windows from inside houses. In other instances, the factory is chosen as the backdrop for family portraits forming striking compositions. The photographic project is completed by a series of candid portraits of residents through layers of dust accumulated on windows.

The Wadi ElQamar neighborhood was created 20 years before the factory opened and its residents have tried to call attention to the problem, for nearly 10 years, by repeatedly filing complaints to the Ministry of Environment. In 2018, Mahdy exhibited the project in the Kodak Passage in Downtown Cairo, and following ensuing media attention and pressure, the factory installed filters that slightly improved the situation for the residents. 

The photographs on view at the exhibition are reproductions of limited edition photographs that are for sale, and whose proceeds fund the medical expenses of the Wadi ElQamar community to this day.

Mohamed Mahdy

Mohamed Mahdy, born in Egypt in 1996, is a documentary photographer and filmmaker based in Alexandria. Mahdy’s work concentrates on the buried and unseen communities of Egypt. He believes that by immersing himself in disparate communities and revealing their stories, he is able to permanently place them within the context of the larger community. Since 2013, Mahdy has been awarded several grants, scholarships and awards and has taken part in exhibitions in the Middle East and beyond. In 2018, he was named by The New York Times Lens blog as one of 12 emerging photographers to know. In 2021, he was awarded the Magnum Foundation Photography and Social Justice Fellowship and is currently one of Sony’s ambassadors.