Youssef Nabil

Youssef Nabil was born in Cairo in 1972 and lives in New York. He began his photography career in 1992 by staging tableaux recalling film stills from the golden age of Egyptian cinema. Later in the 1990s, while working as a photographer’s assistant in prominent studios in New York and Paris, he began taking portraits of artists and friends. On his return to Egypt in 1999 he further developed his distinctive technique of hand-colouring silver gelatin photographs, with portraits of writers, singers and film stars of the Arab world and in recent years he has produced self-portraits that reflect his dislocated life away from Egypt.

A selection of his recent solo exhibitions includes “You Never Left”, Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris (2011); “I Live Within You”, Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), Georgia (2010); “Youssef Nabil”, Galerist, Istanbul (2009); “I Won’t Let You Die”, Villa Medici, Rome (2009); “I Will Go to Paradise”, The Third Line, Dubai (2009); “Cinema”, Stevenson gallery, Cape Town (2008); “Pour un Moment d’Eternité”, Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Arles (2003); “Obsesiones”, Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City (2001).

A selection of recent group exhibitions includes “Of Women’s Modesty and Anger”, Boghossian Foundation, Brussels (2011); “Told/Untold/Retold”, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha (2010); “Unconditional Love”, 53rd Venice Biennale (2009); “Arabesque: Arts of The Arab World”, the Kennedy Center, Washington DC (2009); “Far from Home”, North Carolina Museum of Art (2008); “Portraits II”, Galeria Leme, São Paulo (2008); “Last of the Dictionary Men”, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle (2008); “Regards des photographes arabes contemporains”, Musée National d’Art Moderne et Contemporain d’Alger, Algiers (2008); “Perfect Lovers”, Art Extra, Johannesburg (2008); “Gegenwart aus Jahrtausenden: Zeitgenössische Kunst aus Äygpten”, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany (2007); “Dialogues Méditerranéens”, Musée de L’Annonciade, St Tropez (2007); “Arabiske Blikke”, Kunstforeningen GL Strand, Copenhagen (2006); “Word into Art”, the British Museum, London (2006); “Images of the Middle East”, Danish Center for Culture and Development, Copenhagen (2006); “19 Miradas: Fotógrafos árabes contemporáneos”, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville (2006); “Regards des photographes arabes contemporains”, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris (2005); “Nazar: Photographs from the Arab World”, The Ape rture Foundation Gallery, New York (2005) and Noorderlicht, The Fries Museum, Leeuwaarden, the Netherlands (2004); “L’Égypte”, Saline Royale d’Arc-et-Senans, France (2005); “Arab Eyes”, FotoFest Houston, Texas (2004); “Rites sacrés, Rites profanes: Zeitgenossiche Afrikanische Fotographie”, Kornhausforum, Bern (2004); “Staged Realities: Exposing the Soul in African Photography 1870-2004”, the Stevenson gallery, Cape Town (2004); “Bamako 03: Contemporary African Photography”, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (2004); “Rites sacrés, Rites profanes”, at the “Rencontres Africaines de la Photographie de Bamako”, Musée National du Mali (2003).

Two monographs of his work have been published: “I Won´t Let You Die” (Hatje Cantz, 2008) and “Sleep in My Arms” (Autograph ABP & Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, 2007), and his photographs have featured in numerous international journals including “Art & Auction”, “Art Forum”, “The Art Newspaper”, “Flash Art”, “Les Beaux Arts”, “Le Figaro”, “The Financial Times”, “GQ”, “Le Monde”, “The New Yorker”, “The New York Times”, “Vogue Homme International” and “Vogue Italy”.

Nabil received the Seydou Keita Prize for Portraiture, Rencontres Africaines de la Photographie de Bamako, Mali (2003), and was Artist in Residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2003). His work is in the public collections of the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; la Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; Musée Réattu, Arles; the British Museum, London; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; Savannah College of Art & Design, Georgia; Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City; and The Farjam Collection, Dubai.