Interview with Sherif Karas Part 1

A while back ive been lucky enough to get the chance to interview one talented artist , Sherif Karas . And now ive finally got the chance to post the interview , so enjoy ....

# So tell us Sherif how it all started, how u and photography came to know each other , when the love began...?

Since my childhood, my dad had this hobby too, he owned an old Zenit SLR traditional camera with a basic & wide angle lenses + a tripod.

Of course i realized that it was much complicated than other point & shoot cameras that i was used to see with our friends & since i didn’t like complications at all i only started to use this camera at the age of 16.

There are really two main things that pushed me towards photography:

First was that i feel like i really have a lot of imagination & a good eye to select the right scene . You can consider that genetic or a way of raising (more or less) since my father & uncle are both painters & designers too . So my eyes got used to see alot of art in a very young age whether from my family or from works of others which my dad has always taken me to see.

Unfortunately i don’t have the gift of painting so that’s why i’ve headed to photography as a means to bring out my ideas.

Second because i really loved to study cinematography & i found that it was pretty basic to start from photography since it really intensify all in a shot.

# Great thats as far as the emotions part goes, now how did u start proffesionally , i notice u do a lot of editorials , tell us how u made ur self noticable to the magazines out there , did u mail them ? Connections ? how did that come about..?

At first, my intentions were to practice photography as an art & nothing else . So i took this thing seriously in the year 2005 when i bought myself a 3.2 megapixel camera & decided to make an exhibition to see others’ feedback.

In November 2005 i’ve held my first exhibition at Elsawy culture wheel under the name (A taste from Egypt) where i’ve tried to present some faces & places that still preserve their genuine Egyptian look.

Right after the exhibition i’ve been interviewed by Egypttoday magazine in an article considering photographers in Egypt & i then found my name among those giants of photography in Egypt & categorized as one who represents a new school of photography . http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=6341