Nature is present everywhere in the city, the Egyptian photographer Maha Maamoun testifies: not literally, but figuratively. For her series CAIROSCAPES she photographed the many dresses with floral motifs that are to be seen every day in the streets of Cairo. For Maamoun they are not only a surrogate for nature in an urban environment, but are also a point of rest in the midst of the violence of the city. CAIROSCAPES is constructed of panoramic photos, a form generally used for recording urban landscapes. By applying this at the mirco level, the photographs are not overviews, but intimate, and CAIROSCAPES takes on the fleeting nature of a glance.

Maha Maamoun lives and works in Cairo, the city where she was born in 1972. She is fascinated by socially imposed behaviour, particularly participation in and exclusion from groups. Her photo project Going Places decorated the city busses in Cairo in 2003.