This article was published in Detour Magazine, May 2013.
Ahmed Hayman, the social media star
and the multi-talented photojournalist sat with us in an afternoon to reveal
more about his career, passions and personality.
A renowned wanderlust, Hayman
traveled the world, from Africa to Europe to the U.S. in order to capture a
split second of breathtaking portraits of life and beauty.
He talked to us about cultural
misconceptions around photojournalism in Egypt, “people still think that I will
be manipulating their pictures through Photoshop,” he said. Adding that the
same old “conspiracy theory” fear is still running, “I thought things will
change after the revolution, but then people started accusing photojournalists,
especially foreign ones of being spies.”
Hayman thinks that journalistic
ethics should be applied on all workers of the field equally, “as a
photojournalist, you have to have to put aside all your affiliations and to be
as much neutral as possible.”
Hayman explained that photojournalists
are often underpaid, debunking a misconception about the “Dollars” that people
think they receive per month. He also added that photojournalists operate in
difficult work conditions, “now if you’re covering a demonstration, clashes can
erupt at any moment and photojournalists are always targeted; either they want
to break your camera or hurt you physically.”
Ahmed Hayman referred to a protest
by Egyptian photojournalists on March 19th in reaction to the
increasing violence against them. “This protest got international media
attention and that’s what we needed, for our voice to be heard,” Hayman said.
Hayman continues to collaborate with
Al-Masry Al-youm, a leading independent newspaper in Egypt, he said that under
the new regime, his newspaper is now perceived differently, after being praised
for defending the Muslim Brotherhood under Mubarak’s regime, it is now being
accused of misleading the public.
Hayman explained that
photojournalism differs from any other type of photography as you don’t control
the setting where you work.” You go out in the street, you meet people you
don’t know and you have to take the picture no matter what event this is,” he said,
“expect the unexpected, be prepared to shoot a court case, a demonstration or
even a sports event.”
Hayman spoke about the most
interesting event he has covered, which is a Nubian wedding, “I loved
everything about it, the food, the music and the culture.” He added,”
traditional Hinnah remained on my hands for four months; it left red marks on
my nails.”
“I generally love attending both
weddings and funerals, they represent the contrast of life and death.”
Despite being a passionate traveler,
Hayman insists on not leaving Egypt permanently, “I want to be able to be based
in Egypt and travel abroad from time to time.”
He is also known for keeping high hopes
and a positive spirit, “I listen to Bob Marley while driving, and it helps a
lot with the horrific Cairo traffic.” To keep this spirit, Hayman works on a
charity project called “A colorful future” where he helps getting water
supplies to homes in rural areas of Egypt. So far water the project has
provided water to 70 families, “I do it mainly to see the smile on people’s
faces.”
Hayman called people to take on
social responsibility to do whatever they can to help improve their community
and not wait for the government to do something, because obviously it has a lot
of unsolved problems already.
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Ahmed Hayman, an Egyptian photojournalist. Photo Credit by Noha Hamdy.
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