The Beach: The Politics of Gender in Modern Day Egypt

Egyptian photography artist Nermine Hammam (b. 1967) created her controversialseries, Escaton, between 2009 and 2013, to document changing social norms in anincreasingly conservative Egypt. Photographing holidaymakers on a beach in Egypt,she depicts heavily veiled female bathers enjoying the sea alongside male companions.Hammam sets these images against grainy black and white photographs taken ofher grandparents basking in European attire, on a similar beach, in a secular andWesternized Egypt of the 1950s. As these disparate slices of time and place cometogether, what emerges is a strong and unexpected record of sexual politics in modernday Egypt, emphasized always by the sensuality of the water surrounding the figuresas a backdrop. Behind the stark differences in the outward aesthetics of dress, onebecomes aware of a powerful repetition of poses across both sets of images. The centralspace occupied by the woman remains unchanged despite society’s growing efforts toveil and conceal her. Confident and self-possessed, the woman as wife and mother sitsat the heart of each family unit holding the viewer with her powerful gaze, admittingus into her space. Men occupy the periphery of these images, leaning into the woman’sspace as footnotes to her central narrative. Unexpectedly, the camera reveals acontinuum of female strength across time.