Dr. Yasser Abdelrahim
Visiting Scholar Explores Visual Communication of the Streets and the Digital Non-photograph
Dr. Abelrahim´s current research examines the relationship between visual communication and cultural practices. His research discusses how the expansion of mobile phones with built-in cameras has led to the rise of new media forms in Egypt, particularly what might be called the digital non-photograph. While a photograph incorporates the point of view of its shooter, the employment of light, scene, and space, for example, a non-photograph is unplanned. It depends on something fortuitous happening in the street that catches the eye of the shooter. His research will show how digital non-photography reflects, or hyper-mediates, practices and rituals in Egyptian streets. Although non-photographs of streets in Egypt are accidental, they echo discursive and fragmentary rituals and practices, and surreptitiously reveal aesthetic positions and positioning within society. He is delighted to be at the University of Alberta, looks forward to meeting students and faculty, and can be reached at abdelrah@ualberta.ca.