Fatma Fahmy
Fatma Fahmy is an independent Egyptian visual storyteller whose work focuses on the environmental and social impacts of climate change, migration, and resilience. Born in 1991, she initially earned a degree in Chemical Engineering before turning to photography.
Her storytelling is rooted in long-term observation and a deep connection to the communities she documents. Fahmy’s practice centres on the hidden strength of women and the landscapes they inhabit, revealing powerful narratives of endurance and belonging across fragile and shifting environments.
Fatma Fahmy’s work has received international recognition for its emotional depth and documentary precision. In 2020, she was awarded the Daniele Tamagni Grant to study at the Market Photo Workshop, completing the Photojournalism and Documentary Photography Programme. The same year, she was named among PhMuseum’s African Photographers You Should Know. Her project The Lost Lake, which explores the environmental and social changes around Egypt’s Lake Qarun, was shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Awards in the Environment category in 2023.
Fahmy’s photography has been exhibited widely, including in Ethiopia, Germany, London, Ivory Coast, Ecuador, France, Jordan, Switzerland, Italy, Morocco, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates. Her solo exhibition Home is? was held at the Windybrow Arts Centre in Johannesburg in 2021. She has also participated in group shows at venues such as the Photoville Festival in New York and the Festival della Fotografia Etica in Lodi, Italy.
At the heart of her practice is a belief that the stories of marginalised communities, particularly women, are essential to understanding broader social and environmental shifts. Through careful observation and human connection, she creates narratives that honour the resilience and dignity often overlooked by mainstream discourse.
In her recent work, Fatma Fahmy examines the relationship between women, land, and resilience in rural Egypt. Her ongoing exploration around Lake Qarun documents the intersection of environmental degradation, migration, and the quiet, enduring presence of women who remain tied to their land despite its diminishing vitality. Fahmy’s images do not just depict loss; they evoke the emotional and social dimensions of survival, rooted in memory, tradition, and silent strength.
With a sensitive and intimate approach, she captures how landscapes and human lives are deeply interconnected. The visual narratives she creates give form to often invisible experiences, bringing attention to the profound costs of environmental collapse and socio-economic hardship. Fahmy sees women as the carriers of collective memory and the living voice of the land, breathing with its breath and bearing its wounds.
Supported by organisations such as the Magnum Foundation, she continues to pursue long-term documentary work focused on ecological and human resilience. Her evolving projects explore not only the physical transformations of rural environments but also the spiritual and emotional ties that bind people to place. Fahmy’s commitment to these stories offers a moving testament to the enduring power of community and belonging.
Fatma Fahmy’s solo exhibition Home is? was presented at the Windybrow Arts Centre in Johannesburg in 2021. Her group exhibitions include Square Mile at the Photoville Festival in New York (2024), Vital Impacts at Festival della Fotografia Etica in Lodi (2023), and the Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition at Somerset House, London (2023). She has also exhibited at Africa Foto Fair in Abidjan, the IV Biennial of Photography at LANN Museum in Ecuador, f² Photo Festival in Germany, and Hakawi: Tales of Contemporary Egypt in Paris.
Solo Exhibitions
2021: Home is?, Windybrow Arts Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024: Square Mile (Collective), Photoville Festival, Brooklyn Bridge Park, New York City, USA
2023: Vital Impacts (Collective), Festival della Fotografia Etica, Lodi, Italy
2023: Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition, Somerset House, London, UK
2022: Africa Foto Fair, Abidjan, Ivory Coast
2022: Women in the 21st Century, IV Biennial of Photography, LANN Museum, Guayaquil, Ecuador
2021: Identity, f² Photo Festival, Dortmund, Germany
2019: Hakawi: Tales of Contemporary Egypt, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
