Our Hidden Room

The winner of the Star Photobook Dummy award 2024, marking it as a standout work in visual storytelling and memoir. 

Blending photography and storytelling, Our Hidden Room is a raw and intimate portrayal of a complex yet loving father-son relationship, filled with both tenderness and pain. 

A testament to the power of art to bear witness, transform suffering into meaning, and find beauty even in loss. 

“This is about my father. This is about me. This is about our hidden room.” Our Hidden Room is an intimate and moving memoir that explores the life of the author’s father—a man shaped by hardship, a deep love for photography, and a lifelong battle with mental illness. Across six chapters, the narrative traces his journey from a difficult childhood in an orphanage in Alexandria to his time in the Egyptian Army, where he discovered photography as both an artistic outlet and a means of solace. Through a deeply personal lens, the author reflects on his father’s resilience, the stigma surrounding mental illness, and the role of art in preserving memory and identity. Photography, once a source of pain for his father, becomes a path of healing for the author.