Pictures from life painted in tints from the moving image

Growing up in Cairo, considered the birthplace of Middle Eastern cinema, Nabeel Youssef drew inspiration from the irresistible charm of the bygone golden era of Egyptian cinema and the hand-painted, Technicolor posters and pictures from those times.

The childhood memories of black-and-white films and their elegance and melodrama, have led the artist in him to lovingly construct images of celebrities with intense expressions in dramatically lit studio settings.

Following the lineage of the imagery of those times, the artist delicately hand-tints the black-and-white photographs, transforming them into cinematic moments of longing, loss, sensuousness and death.

The portraits are distinctive because they have been created out of the artist's fear of losing his beloved star icons.

This fear drives him to create images meant to immortalise the moment they depict and freeze it in time. The attributes of his subjects are besieged by his wild yet real imagination.

The sitters are placed in an eerie stillness far from their public image.

In doing so, Youssef flits between past and present, revitalising his personalities with questions about dreams and realities, and reminiscences and apprehensions about isolation and death.

Life as cinema

“It is more about the idea of meeting and getting to know someone you like,'' Youssef told Weekend Review.

As he explains in the introduction of his latest book, I Won't Let You Die: “I grew up in Cairo as a Muslim, and in Islam we speak a lot about destiny — that each of us has a written time to come into this world and a time to leave ... and whatever happens in between is also written, written by God. In a way, this has stayed in my mind forever.

"And I started observing my life as if I was in a cinema ... watching and witnessing every minute of my own movie. The movie was set and written before I entered the theatre and now it is time just to sit and watch.''

Recalling the first time he understood the concept of death, Youssef said: “I was about 4 or 5 years old, when while watching an old Egyptian film on TV, I asked my mother about the actors.

‘Most of them are dead,' my mother said. It was a shocking discovery for me at that age. I was in love with all these beautiful dead people!

This influenced me. I wanted to meet all the actors I loved either before they or I died.

“I have lived every day thinking that this might be the last day for me or someone I loved. I pray to God that I be the first one to leave so that I don't have to see anyone I love dying,'' Youssef said. “I won't let them die before me.''

Born in 1972, Youssef began his photography career in the early 1990s by shooting images of tableaux in which his friends acted out melodramas from Egyptian films.

Later he went to the United States to work with photographer David LaChapelle as his assistant after meeting him in Egypt. “It was a great experience for me to work with him,'' he said.

On his return to Egypt, Youssef further developed his approach to the age-old hand-painted technique of photography, making portraits of writers, singers and film stars of the Arab world.

These included luminaries such as Tracey Emin, Shirin Neshat, Ghada Amer, Mona Hatoum, Zaha Hadid, Naguib Mahfouz, David Lynch and Louise Bourgeois — the story of each being told through the dream-like dewed tones that create the staged demeanour of real actions.

Open-ended narratives are alluded to, with additional clues in the titles that include locations and dates.

In many of his portraits, the centrality of sensuous appeal — women sleeping or lying in their boudoirs as if in profound yearning — is conveyed through a gentle and evocative touch.
When asked whether he was trying to address the issues of desire and freedom as a political message, Youssef replied: “Desire is part of our life. Why think about it in political terms? If you believe in something that is there, it comes out naturally.

"I admit sensuousness is central to my work. Even an ordinary pose is appealing. But I am not promoting the idea of desire in particular.''

In recent years, especially since living in Paris and New York, Youssef has started producing a series, Self-portraits, that reflects his life away from Egypt.

Self as the subject

The images in this series, which are among those exhibited at The Third Line, depict Youssef sleeping, or lying pensively.

The artist increasingly takes on a performer's role in these images, creating rhythm in multi-panelled works, where, for example, he is seen disappearing into the ocean.

As the title of the exhibition, I Will Go To Paradise, suggests, the images are built on an obsession with and the acceptance of death.

“Self-portraits refers to selected moments of my life,'' the artist said. “The images address my concerns regarding life and death — the idea of not always belonging to one place.

“The images are certainly cinematic in their composition but are more narrative compared with the Portraits series. As I am the subject here, I have to think differently. It is the way I communicate.''

“The work titled I Will Go To Paradise is quite personal and spiritual as it represents the great reality of letting go,'' he added.

At 36, Youssef has established himself as one of the most influential photographers of his generation.

Once enthralled by unrealistic cinematic stories, he now turns dreams into reality, where subtle and suggestive eroticism lingers between the elegance of yesteryear and the passion of the contemporary world.

What he is trying to convey remains mysterious. What is apparent is his belief: “Everything will end … nothing is forever.''

Layla Haroon is a freelance writer based in Abu Dhabi.

I Will Go To Paradise is on until April 8 at The Third Line gallery, Dubai.