Interview with Roger Anis

For the exhibition Out of Office (Still Here) Quiller MacQuarrie conducted interviews with various artists. This interview is with Roger Anis, the artist behind Shaabi Beaches. Water is central to the work of Egyptian photographer Roger Anis, who has documented the country's drinking water supply, organised the annual Nile Parade in Cairo, and captured the role of the sea in summer leisure. His photo series Shaabi Beaches pays tribute to Egypt's disappearing public beaches and the tradition of the Egyptian beach photographer, portraying how people from all walks of life find ways to enjoy at least one summer day by the water despite financial hardship.

Quiller:

How do you see your work connecting to the themes of the exhibition — access to free time and leisure in relation to summer vacation?

Roger:

This project is specifically about people enjoying summertime, particularly open beaches in Egypt, and who still has access to them — specifically working class people, but also those who don't have access to the beach for economic or other reasons, and the ways they find to get around it and access water in general. So it connects perfectly.

Quiller:

Does your artistic practice feel more like leisure/play or work and labor?

Roger:

Half and half. The beauty of my job is that it's very serious, but it's also so much fun — and the fun comes from the stories you encounter along the way. I come from a background as a photojournalist, where you're always documenting the world: conflict, emotion, disasters, news, every part of life, telling stories through pictures.

There is a very thin line between capturing a good picture and also telling a story — presenting knowledge, highlighting a cause or a hidden story or a hidden place that people don't know about. That's why I believe what I do sits on a thin line between work and labor and leisure and fun.

Working on a story like the one about the local beaches is so much fun, but it's also very delicate. You have to be aware and respectful of people's lives, their stories, their dignity, because you're documenting people who allow you into their lives. And this is even more sensitive with visuals than with words — you see how people are dressed, how they act, they are more exposed. So there is real responsibility in that.

Quiller:

What is your favorite memory from a summer period?

Roger:

My favorite memory is always running to the water, whenever there is water nearby. And my mother screaming that I'm going to drown, even when I'm in very shallow water at the very beginning of the shore. I think all mothers have this in their manual.

Quiller:

What do you like to do with your free time?

Roger:

It's also water. I've always liked to be next to water. Whenever I have free time, I go to the water — when I'm in Egypt I go to the Mediterranean, when I'm in Cairo I go to Ain Sokhna, when I'm in Hurghada I go to the Red Sea. It's something that renews my energy and my mind. Some people prefer climbing mountains, but water is something that, in a fun and almost magical way, restores me.

Quiller:

How does your work display the politics of who gets to experience leisure and who is allotted free time to spend on hot summer days at the beach?

Roger:

This is what documentary photography does — it tells stories in a delicate but also complex and challenging way. When you see a good picture, the first thing you might say is, "Wow, that's a nice picture." And then you start to question what's inside it. And then the caption or the accompanying text starts to inform you. That's how photography and art in general can approach sensitive subjects.

When I started this project, all you could see in beach pictures were fancy gated beaches and resorts where a specific class goes. And when the working class appeared in beach imagery, it was always framed negatively — mocked on social media or elsewhere. The project also comes from personal curiosity. I come from a small city in Egypt, and getting access to the beach was a bit far and also a bit costly. For years we stopped going because it cost too much.

And then going back and listening to people's stories — hearing that some come for just an hour, just to touch the water — you realize what a privilege it is to be able to visit the beach at all. So many beaches require payment just to access a spot of land to relax on. Leisure almost always costs money.

Quiller:

Can you explain a little more about what "shaabi beaches" are, specifically in relation to Egypt?

Roger:

The word "shaabi" here relates to something local and to a specific class — mostly working class. When I started the project, I was curious about what the beaches I had my own pictures and memories of had become, who the people going there were, and what their stories were. I started it while working as a photojournalist at a newspaper, and I went in the summer of 2017 and again in 2018 for a second part.

Then I started asking: what about people who don't have access to the beach at all?

So I began searching for the different ways people connect with water when the beach is beyond their reach. I found families setting up inflatable pools in their backyards, children swimming in fountains, people gathering around lakes, and others finding whatever accessible body of water they could. The story kept evolving from there.

Quiller:

In many of the photographs, tuk-tuks sit on the sand and chairs that would normally be around a dinner table are submerged in water. What role does water play in your work?

Roger:

Water attracts me both visually and personally, whether it's salty, fresh, any form. You see first, and then you show. You see how people deal with and interact with water, and then you show that in your work.