Artist Nelly El Sharkawy Explores Beauty of Bricks at Cairo Photo Week

Roaming Cairene streets, you’ve probably grown accustomed to the all-consuming sight of red bricks, marring the exteriors of unfinished buildings. Imagine, however, if this building material was put together with aesthetic intention on the facades of iconic landmarks in Downtown Cairo and the Nile corniche, such as the Hilton Ramses Hotel and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs?

Nelly El Sharkawy, an architectural and street photographer, presents the narrative in her first solo exhibition, ‘Even a Brick Wants to be Something Else’, during Cairo Photo Week at Downtown Cairo’s Startup Haus until February 18th. The exhibition presents an alternative look to bricks, displaying photographs of buildings across Egypt, the MENA region and the world if they were covered in the red material.

“I wanted to address how people have grown to dislike red bricks because of how they’ve been used, trying to raise awareness that red bricks can, in fact, present pleasant visuals when used consciously,” El Sharkawy tells SceneHome. “Initially, I was hoping for all the images to be of buildings in Egypt to stress on our perspective but photography was difficult.”

“For some of the images, like the Hilton Ramses Hotel and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I needed to hop on a Felouka in the Nile to be able to freely capture them,” she says. “The ‘CBD Towers’ at the New Administrative Capital were photographed from the car, and Helwan University and Grand Hyatt Hotel were taken during the COVID lockdown, so the streets were empty.”

Those buildings - along with the Cleopatra Hotel in Downtown Cairo - made up the Egyptian facades reimagined in El Sharkawy’s exhibition. Meanwhile, the Qatar Foundation Headquarters in Doha and Parc de Laberint d’Horta in Barcelona, Spain, proved to be easier to photograph. “I focused on buildings with modernist architecture, a style that featured little to no ornaments, just pure form.”

Years in the making, this project’s inspirations began three years ago when El Sharkawy was on a beach at Egypt’s North Coast scrolling through Facebook. “I spotted an image of a high-rise building that, oddly, had no windows. It was an uninterrupted, slim and tall building with concrete slabs and red bricks,” she recalls. “There was something about it that looked vintage and appealed to me.”

El Sharkawy has always been fascinated with red bricks, heavily relying on them during her projects as an architecture student. “I would always struggle with styles. Everyone knew what they liked, be it Neoclassical, Modern or Art Deco. But I couldn’t relate to any of them.” Her method of figuring out architectural styles that appealed to her was through photography - mainly, street photography.

“I would end up with tons of images of informal buildings because, well, they’re all over Cairo. I presented them in black and white because everyone was used to their sight in colour,” El Sharkawy explains. Manipulating images compels people to look. In this case, there was less noise and traffic and all the focus became on the building masses. “I found the visuals to be relaxing and real, more real than images of buildings that were intentionally designed. There’s something very human about non-conscious design decisions.”

At the exhibition’s opening, many foreign architects approached El Sharkawy to share how red bricks are used in their countries. “One of them was building her house with red bricks and described,  ‘It felt like building a masterpiece’. It proves that the material is appreciated elsewhere,” El Sharkawy says. “So, why isn’t it appreciated here?”

The photographs depict facades of modernist architecture, a style that was common in the late 50s and early 60s. El Sharkawy found their shapes to be best suited to showcase the material, especially when completely covered. “I was thinking of using archival images because I wasn’t sure that I would be able to take the photographs,” she shared.

El Sharkawy found it to be quite easier elsewhere. In Doha, modern forms presented themselves without any fences or trees covering them. She transformed the glass facades of the Qatar Foundation Headquarters in two different perspectives. “Everything was open and easy to capture.”

While most of the feedback at the exhibition proved positive, what El Sharkawy found to be remarkably interesting was when foreigners would express that buildings abroad are built with different materials and are then enclosed with brick slips. In Egypt, ironically, it’s the other way around. “I’m purposely not referring to bricks as a construction material but rather a finishing material. Here, bricks are always covered when in reality they can be used to cover any facade, regardless of the design,” El Sharkawy says. “Despite the material seeming rigid, it can be used to create flowy designs that have a uniquely magical visual.” Some of the exhibition’s visitors even confessed that they prefer these alternative visuals, with special attention given to the reimagined Hilton Ramses Hotel.

Days prior to the exhibition being officially opened, two European PHD students wandering around Downtown Cairo found themselves inside Startup Haus and were struck by El Sharkawy’s images being hung. Out of all the topics in the world, their research was on red bricks.

“They rushed to me and started asking about the Egyptian perspective, how we viewed red bricks,” El Sharkawy recalls. To their surprise, her response was the polar opposite of what they experience in Europe. “It was weird for them to learn that we don’t really appreciate red bricks.” That’s the sort of cultural exchange one may find at a good exhibition.

On that note, every great exhibition serves great food. El Sharkawy’s sister, Farah, is a lawyer-turned chef who prepared cake bricks for the exhibition. This wasn’t the only example of bricks taking over the theme at Startup Haus. The exhibition featured to-scale sponge bricks along with stickers depicting the varying, odd shapes of bricks, allowing people to connect with the material and use them in different ways.

El Sharkawy will continue the project by photographing more Cairene buildings and introducing installations that feature unusually shaped bricks. For now, here’s the world renowned quote by Louis Kahn, one of the 20th century’s most influential architects that inspired the photographer throughout her project:

“If you’re ever stuck for inspiration, ask your materials for advice. “You say to a brick, ‘What do you want, brick?’ And brick says to you, ‘I like an arch.’ And you say to brick, ‘Look, I want one, too, but arches are expensive and I can use a concrete lintel.’ And then you say: ‘What do you think of that, brick?’ Brick says: ‘I like an arch.’”