Sherif Sonbol
Sherif Sonbol (born December 6, 1956) is an Egyptian photographer specializing in architecture, scenic fine arts and photojournalism. Early life. Sonbol was born in Giza, Cairo, Egypt. He studied insurance at Cairo University and attended the Chartered Insurance Institute in London. He worked for the Egyptian Reinsurance Company as a marine underwriter. Around 1988 Sonbol decided to pursue one of his passions -photography- and tried his luck at Al-Ahram, where he soon started working as a freelancer. Career. It only took a few months for him to become a full-time photographer at Al-Ahram under the  auspices of Antoun Albert. Although achieving professional goals and popularity at Al-Ahram, at a certain point Sonbol saw the need of leaving the newspaper in order to be recruited by the American Embassy's as official photographer. This position was finally not materialized but still the American Embassy incorporated him to its computer department as graphic designer and computer trainer for newcomers, He managed to combine these roles with his work in the New Cairo Opera House, where he had been taking pictures since it opened its doors in 1988. Eventually Sonbol resigned his place at the American Embassy  and returned to Al-Ahram; this time to the Al-Ahram Weekly. He stayed six years as main photographer of Kalam-El-Nass. On his last year there, the Maraya-El-Nass magazine project saw the light. This was an interior design magazine belonging to the same group as Kalam-El-Nass. The project's key artistic responsibles were to be writer Moguib Rushdi and himself, so he was fully transferred to the new magazine. Here too he managed to "shake the foundations of Egyptian interior photography with his use of natural light". Currently Sonbol manages to combine his responsibilities  as chief photographer in Al-Ahram Weekly and in the Cairo Opera House with other projects. As a freelancer, he occasionally contributes to other publications -including Kalam-El-Nass-. He participates in photography campaigns and other job assignments too. He has also collaborated with important cultural centers such as the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. His work has been displayed in various exhibits worldwide and has been the subject of doctorate thesis He has given seminars at AFCA (Académie Francophone Cairote des Arts) and teaches photography at the Ahram Canadian University since 2008. Through one of his most recent freelance projects, Sonbol tries  to bring Western and Arabic cultures closer together in order to promote a better understanding and communication. Critical reception. "Nothing is more beautiful than to express art through art…" -Naguib Mahfouz, Nobel Laureate "Rare is the photographer who looks at a familiar art form and shows it in a new light. But Sherif Sonbol’s stunning and revelatory dance photographs [show] a particularly agile eye… apt to shoot from a catwalk above the stage or from the wings, frequently abstracting shapes into dynamic and explosive bursts of color." -Anna Kisselgoff, New York Times "An artist has reached the pinnacle of  his profession when his work can be recognised without his signature being written…" -Mounir Kenaan, leading Egyptian painter