REHAB ELDALIL

Rehab Eldalil is a documentary photographer, visual story teller, and educator based in Egypt. In her photographic work, Eldalil explores broad themes of identity through participatory practice. Her work ranges between personal projects, collaborations with NGOs, and publications, documenting human interest stories in the SWANA region.

In 2013, Eldalil began research on collaborative lens-based approaches and representation in visual storytelling. Through this work,  she challenges traditional documentary frameworks by developing methods to involve subjects as participants in the creative process, embracing the fluidity of collaborative mediums against the limitations of photography in developing layered and comprehensive visual narratives that challenge the exoticism of communities, including her own as an African and Arabic woman.

Her long-term project, The Longing Of The Stranger Whose Path Has Been Broken  was developed under AFAC & Magnum Foundation’s ADP Program 2020, The National Geographic Society’s Emergency grant for Journalists 2020 and Creative Activism award 2021. Eldalil was awarded the FotoEvidence W Award in 2022 to publish this project as a book. She received additional support from the World Press Photo Regional Award 2022, Premi Mediterrani Albert Camus award 2022, and Photo Frome Photobook Award 2023 to realise the final  publication.

Having lived in the US during 9/11 and experienced rising xenophobia, then returning back to Egypt where years later she participated in the Jan 25 Egyptian revolution, identity has come to play a major role in Eldalil’s practice. She draws from her personal experiences for creative inspiration. Her work is both personal and universal. She consider her photographic practice as alternative historical documents woven by the community’s voice, welcoming the complexity of identity, instead of flattening it to labels that may result in othering.

Rehab Eldalil’s work has been exhibited around the world, including Egypt, USA, UK, Germany, Brazil, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Canada, and Greece. Her first publication, The Longing Of The Stranger Whose Path Has Been Broken  was launched in early 2023.