TO CAIRO & BACK - A NARROW VISION

I just this morning finished reading a very good book, Dreamers of the Day, by Mary Doria Russell, in which Egypt plays a very big part. (And it is a good book, by the way). It reminded me of the trip Jerry and I took in 1980, spending 5 days in Egypt and 5 in Israel.

As I was reading and as the author placed her protagonist in various places around Cairo and Luxor, I was delighted that I knew exactly where she was talking about. I have often since described that time in Egypt this way: My mouth fell open when I stepped off the airplane and didn't close until I got on the airplane to leave. And that was close to the truth!

1980 was during the time when my hobby was photography. As I recall, I had passed through the Chinese Cooking stage but had not yet reached the genealogy stage. At any rate, I had acquired two cameras, the first being a fixed lens Canon that of course became my "backup" camera after I got my first Canon SLR and some great lenses to go with it, my favorite being a 200mm telephoto lens. For the most part I used fast film in the old camera and slow film in the new. I discovered, of course, that it was imperative that I use both cameras and both hands, and I found that Jerry was a very important part of my ability to get the photo I wanted. His job was to listen to what the guide was telling us, while I hovered around busy as a bee going in and out of the camera bags he was holding for me so I could get exactly the speed film and the right lens for the shot. After I was finished with my shooting and when we got back from whatever site we were visiting, he had to tell me in great detail what I hadn't seen. This was the only drawback to all my shooting; I missed out on much of what I really needed to know.

We had two days scheduled for our time in Luxor and the Valley of the Kings. Upon alighting from the bus, I saw a smallish Egyptian man armed with a camera -- and it appeared he was taking photographs of us as we arrived. It made me laugh, because one of the things I liked to shoot was pictures of people taking pictures. Oh, they would contort themselves into an amazing stance just to get a straight-on picture of what they were aiming at. I always laughed to see them, and naturally then, I was also very aware to always stand in a normal position so no one would think to turn their lens on me. Anyway, when I saw this little man, I figured he was like a Japanese tourist in America taking pictures of the "natives" -- only in the reverse, the natives taking a picture of the tourists.

As we went from the complex at Karnak, the sacred lake, the Avenue of the Sphinxes, and the second day to Thebes, the tombs and the Colossi of Memnon, I kept noticing that this little man was hovering in the background like a mosquito looking for a bite, or a gnat not looking for anything in particular but just there. The fellow didn't bother us and was actually very unobtrusive; I probably noticed him more than the others did because he seemed to have such an old camera. On occasion I thought maybe he was a bit simple-minded and the camera was just a toy.

The morning of the third day as we walked out the door of the hotel to board our bus back to the airport, the little photographer was standing at the end of the walkway, which was lined on both sides by a huge display of all the photographs he had taken of us on our two day sightseeing venture. He had them posted and grouped by sites visited, and it was a simple matter to look at each site and see what picture he took of us there. He wasn't simpleminded and the camera wasn't a toy. He was an astute businessman with a camera, and not one of us left Luxor without giving that fellow plenty of American dollars for the excellent photos he took of us.

I only picked one picture to purchase, and that picture was what I considered the epitomy of how Jerry and I experienced Egypt. As you will note, Jerry is carrying a lens in each of his hands. I am struggling to get the big 200mm lens off my camera and I will next choose which of the lens Jerry is carrying to put on it. In the background is the funerary temple of Queen Hatshepsut and we have just learned that she was actually not a Queen but a co-ruler, that she was not buried in the funerary temple which is a monument to her but in a distant tomb, and that sometimes she is depicted as a kilted, bearded man. Jerry told me this after we bought the picture.

I made a wonderful scrapbook of all the photos I took in Egypt. I was shooting slide film then, mostly slow film so as to get good color, and in making the scrapbook I chose my best slides had had them made into prints. Now, only 25 years later, those prints are mostly brownish and the skies are almost a navy blue. The only picture that is still in perfect order is the little Egyptian man's picture of us. But that is ok. To be very honest with you, the photo above is the only one that I am really fond of and that will be passed on to the future generations. The kids will be able to find far better pictures of things Egyptian in books; they will not be interested in darkened photos of our trip. But this black and white photo of their folks is a keeper, thanks to an Egyptian businessman's business!