manuel alvarez diestro captures necropoli across egypt
A decade after his haunting photo series exposing dense urbanscapes juxtaposed with cemeteries around Hong Kong, Spanish photographer Manuel Alvarez Diestro returns with a new series unveiling tombs across the Egyptian desert. The‘Egypt’s Necropolis’series captures surreal and still compositions which depict parallels between the worlds of the living and the dead and the encompassing environments in which they co-exist. Engulfed in a sense of stillness, the photographs uncover similarities in forms and hierarchies between urban fabrics and funerary spaces, capturing how they seem to merge into one cohesive landscape.
Cairo’s South Necropolis | all images by Manuel Alvarez Diestro
capturing coexisting world’s of the living & the dead
‘Egypt’s Necropolis’culminates Manuel Alvarez Diestro’s decade-long journey photographing tombs across Egypt, from small villages to the Pyramids of Giza. In Cairo’s city of the dead where most of the images were taken, the urban fabric is fully integrated with the necropolis. Capturing these fusions, the photographer juxtaposes the tombs against built residential and communal structures as well as infrastructures, unveiling similarities in color, shape, and hierarchy coming together as part of a same whole. In Diestro’s eyes these magnificent spaces with thousands of years of history stand in the desert as clear examples that highlight the cultural significance of these memorials in Egyptian society.
Cairo’s Necropolis
Overall, Manuel Alvarez Diestro’s compositions convey a sense of imprisonment and confinement, demonstrating that there is‘no escape from man’s final destiny.’In other locations such as Giza, El Minya, and El Fayum, the funerary spaces are isolated but still in dialogue with their surroundings. Moreover, a composition captures a cluster of memorial blocks set against the backdrop of the great pyramids, reinforcing Egypt’s legacy in funerary architecture since the beginning of human history.
Funerary structure in El Fayum
Giza Pyramids
Cairo’s South Metroplis against Maadi’s skyscrapers
cemetery in Giza
Cairo’s East Necropolis against ultra dense housing
El Minya’s City of the Dead
Cairo’s South Necropolis traversed by recently built freeway
project info:
name: Egypt’s Necropolis
photographer: Manuel Alvarez Diestro
designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.
edited by: ravail khan | designboom
