Electricity pylons, road-signs and rusty advertising plaques steal the spotlight from the Giza pyramids in these images by photographer Manuel Alvarez Diestro.
The series was shot 20 kilometres away from the towering structures, in the outskirts of Cairo.
Unlike pictures promoted by Egypt’s tourist industry, these photographs depict the setting of the pyramids as an abandoned industrial wasteland.
Diestro previously documented growing high-rise cities in Asia for a separate photographic series – see our earlier story here.
See also: more photography stories on Dezeen.
Here’s a short description of the project from the photographer:
Pyramids
This photographic series entitled “Pyramids” is a visual interpretation of Cairo’s past and present during the times of the Revolution.
My stay in Cairo after many years was getting to an end and felt like tackling for once the subject of the Pyramids of Giza, but to be represented in a new context not seen before.
Twenty kilometers away and after hours of walking I found and photographed what I thought to be a landscape full of symbols and strong visual juxtapositions.
This place became a “perfect escape” for several days where I could disconnect from the social unrest and the violence I was experiencing in the city.
I walked along cars and military trucks and looking perplexed to an epic view.
The pyramids were in the far distance and confronted with traffic signs, semi abandoned advertisement panels and electric posts that I was encountering on my way.
However, in the outskirts of Cairo this “collage” of symbols seems to suggest an uncertain future.
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| Natural by Manuel Alvarez Diestro |
Heygate Abstracted by Simon Kennedy |
Dezeen Screen: Bas Princen |
we are lucky they are not demolished for bricks yet…
actually they already were, they used to be covered in white marble…
Wow, I'm surprised for some reason that all that crap was built on the way to the Pyramids. I guess I'm compareing it to the journey you take to get to Macchu Picchu where there isn't as much commercial/industrial impact. If you look at getting to parts of the Great Wall, this is similar…
geat idea, amazing contrast, 4000 years apart in design… i think this brings out my opinion that todays design (though might be perfectly luxurious) is very dirty and time limited (unlike the pyramids or natures own designs), as a mirror of the path our civilization has taken
i don't really like the aesthetics of the photos, i can imagine they could be more :artistic: but maybe thats just the right part of it
you cant really compare todays design with 4000 yrs ago, its apples and oranges (both are nice, but they are very different). Im sure if someone today had a stable society, tens of thousands of skilled workers, as many slaves, as well as unlimited resources they could just as easily come up with something as enduring. But noone does, so we havent. Art reflects the age in which its made.
Hopefully that our revolution could change that ugly fact !!
Reminds me of the area surrounding Teotihuacan :(
omg! I thought that first pic was a plasma cut steel site specific installation a la Cal Lane type thing. But its just where the paint has protected the steel from rust, Amazing and beautiful