Billboards of Cairo
Selling the dream
In January 2021 I travelled to Cairo to work as a cameraman on the coverage of the Mens Handball World Championships.
The Corona pandemic had taken its toll on Egypt as with so many other countries, and there were servere restrictions in place regarding our movements. We had to live in a “Bubble”, which meant that we were only allowed to leave our hotel to travel to the sports arena and back by coach.
The route to the sports arena was along an elevated highway, which was flanked by huge advertising billboards. However, due to Corona, advertisers had tightened their budgets, leaving the vast majority of these hoardings empty. It was a surreal scene reminiscent of a dystopic movie.
These billboards and their placement without any perceived respect for the view of people living or working in the buildings around them fascinated me and I set about making a photo-series shot out of the window of the moving coach.
