Egyptian artist and photographer Youssef Nabil began his creative career in the early 90s with a series of images in which he staged his friends in film scenes from the "golden age of Egyptian cinema." Working alongside some of the fashion world's greatest photographers, including David LaChapelle (of Kardashian Christmas Card fame) and Mario Testino, Nabil developed his own, dream-like aesthetic of "hand-coloring silver gelatin photographs," which in-turn "evokes a sense of longing and nostalgia and allows his photographs to flicker between our time and another era." A new monograph, entitled Youssef Nabil (March 25, Flammarion), highlights this juxtaposition of old-world meets modern, featuring the likes of Catherine Deneuve, Alicia Keys, Tracey Emin, and Marina Abramovic. His subjects sit against backdrops of culture and scenery inspired by Nabil's home, while he explores themes such as "alienation, identity, location, nostaligia, fame, eroticism, and death."
Left: Catherine Deneuve, Paris, 2010
© Youssef Nabil, Courtesy Rizzoli New York
Natacha Atlas, Cairo, 2000
© Youssef Nabil, Courtesy Rizzoli New York
Alicia Keys, New York, 2010
© Youssef Nabil, Courtesy Rizzoli New York
You Never Left # I 1, 2010
© Youssef Nabil, Courtesy Rizzoli New York
You Never Left # XI, 2010
© Youssef Nabil, Courtesy Rizzoli New York
Charlotte Rampling, Paris 2011
© Youssef Nabil, Courtesy Rizzoli New York
Youssef Nabil will be published on March 25 by Flammarion.
é Youssef Nabil, Courtesy Rizzoli New York
