Waiting
You spend a huge chunk of your life waiting. Waiting until sunrise, waiting to grow up, waiting for a phone-call, waiting to graduate, waiting to pay for your groceries at the check-out line, waiting for a miracle to happen, waiting for your bus. You can wait patiently in line, or you can wait impatiently, you can wait for something that might never happen, and sometimes you just can’t wait. People are very different by nature; different backgrounds, different cultures, different races, different mentalities, with differing priorities and differing tastes, as well as differing habits and differing paths. Waiting, though, is something that everybody has in common. It doesn’t matter who you are, or where you come from, how much money you make, or how you spell your name, nor how old you are, you will have waited for something at some point in your life. The practice of waiting does not discriminate.
I focus on people waiting at bus stops; the ideal location that unifies a diverse population. This involves the study of different subjects, almost like an anthropological experiment.
Who are these people? What are they waiting for? Is this waiting a means to an end, or is it endless? Essentially these people are representative of themselves and they wait for their immediate need; the bus. Their waiting, however, is symbolic of the wait for change.
The images are powerful and they speak for themselves. In each image not only do you see the subject waiting, you see the strong influence of visual culture that frames the bus stop benches. The advertisements lacing the images beg the question of globalization and what began with Sadat’s open door policy. Imported goods and a culture of advertising that sought to advertise unnecessary products to the Egyptian population, creating consumer culture and a new visual language that continues to grace the streets of Egypt with its presence. This consumer culture insinuates that all that is not Egyptian is better and in the battle of old versus new, the newer, ‘global’ culture wins out over the ‘old’ original culture. This is as true for products as it is for buildings, street signs, taxis, etc. The country gets a facelift in the form of globalization, that has a very strong presence in each image.
Their waiting is a wait for change, they aren’t just waiting for the bus, they’re waiting as life passes them by, as the next new thing comes along and the old is eradicated. They wait as the change happens with an almost apathetic presence. They have no hand in the change, they are merely waiting and watching it happen. Much like the current political scene, with a silent majority, watching and waiting as the change unfolds around them.
I focus on people waiting at bus stops; the ideal location that unifies a diverse population. This involves the study of different subjects, almost like an anthropological experiment.
Who are these people? What are they waiting for? Is this waiting a means to an end, or is it endless? Essentially these people are representative of themselves and they wait for their immediate need; the bus. Their waiting, however, is symbolic of the wait for change.
The images are powerful and they speak for themselves. In each image not only do you see the subject waiting, you see the strong influence of visual culture that frames the bus stop benches. The advertisements lacing the images beg the question of globalization and what began with Sadat’s open door policy. Imported goods and a culture of advertising that sought to advertise unnecessary products to the Egyptian population, creating consumer culture and a new visual language that continues to grace the streets of Egypt with its presence. This consumer culture insinuates that all that is not Egyptian is better and in the battle of old versus new, the newer, ‘global’ culture wins out over the ‘old’ original culture. This is as true for products as it is for buildings, street signs, taxis, etc. The country gets a facelift in the form of globalization, that has a very strong presence in each image.
Their waiting is a wait for change, they aren’t just waiting for the bus, they’re waiting as life passes them by, as the next new thing comes along and the old is eradicated. They wait as the change happens with an almost apathetic presence. They have no hand in the change, they are merely waiting and watching it happen. Much like the current political scene, with a silent majority, watching and waiting as the change unfolds around them.
