Mohamed Mahdy: On embedding ethics
In this episode, we talk with Mohamed Mahdy on embedding ethics. He talks about using your own senses to discover the stories around you, rather than venturing out of your own community. He also explores his quest for authenticity in his work and how multi-modal works can help achieve such authenticity. Finally, he discusses street photography and the ethical reflections it invites.
What does photography ethics mean to Mohamed?
“Ethics is to let your ego go and then don’t separate your person from what you do. Like, if you’re really a good person, it will be reflected in your work immediately. If you are thinking about ethics and manners and values and respecting people, it will be immediately in your work. Actually, everything you do in your life, we should not separate them. And I feel like ethics, to me, is always reflecting what I’m doing, every step asking those questions each project I make... And getting back to why I’m doing it. For whom?, what is it about?. I believe we should always put them in front of our eyes everyday because we also change with time, and having a lot of exposure can change you.” (35:45)
Mohamed Mahdy is a visual storyteller from Alexandria, Egypt. His work concentrates on the hidden and often unseen communities in Egypt, tackling diverse cultural and social issues. He works with his protagonists as a collective to empower them, amplifying their voices and creating a tangible impact on the ground. He aims to go beyond his own perspective to get closer to reality by exploring how collective memory is shaped and transformed.
Mohamed’s award winning work has been exhibited worldwide. In 2021, he was awarded the Photography & Social Justice Fellowship with Magnum Foundation. In 2022, he was named by The Guardian as one of five emerging talents in photojournalism and he won the Canon Student Development Program. In 2023, Mohamed was awarded both regional and global awards from World Press Photo Foundation for his interactive web documentary, Here the Doors Don't know me.”
He holds a degree in Arts and Design from Pharos University in Alexandria.
You can see his work at https://www.mohammedmahdy.com