El Gouna Photo Week Spotlights Umm Kulthum’s Paris Concerts and Egyptian Cinema

The second edition of El Gouna Photo Week is giving photography a dedicated space as a means of preserving cultural memory, with exhibitions exploring music and cinema.

Two exhibitions focus on Umm Kulthum’s concerts in Paris and the memory of Egyptian cinema through Bakr’s lens, bringing these strands of Egypt’s artistic heritage into the programme.

The Paris concerts exhibition centres on a chapter in Umm Kulthum’s performance history, using photographs to document her appearances in the French capital.

The cinema exhibition turns to Bakr’s photographic record of Egyptian film culture, placing images at the heart of its exploration of the industry’s memory.

Together, the exhibitions reflect the programme’s broader interest in photography’s ability to preserve cultural history and document artistic and human change.