Fatma Fahmy (b. 1991) is an independent visual storyteller from Egypt whose work explores environmental and social issues shaped by climate change, migration, and community resilience.
She earned a B.A. in Chemical Engineering from Cairo University in 2013 and later shifted her focus to photography. In 2020, she received the Daniele Tamagni Grant to study at the Market Photo Workshop, where she completed the Photojournalism and Documentary Photography Programme.
Since 2022, she has contributed to The New York Times, Reuters, and other international publications.
Fahmy’s work has been recognized internationally. She was named one of the African Photographers You Should Know by PhMuseum in 2020 and was shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Award in the Environment category for her ongoing project, The Lost Lake.
Her photography has been exhibited in Ethiopia, Germany, London, Ivory Coast, Ecuador, France, Jordan, Switzerland, Italy, Morocco, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates.
At the heart of Fahmy’s work is a desire to bring forward the stories of people who are often invisible those who rarely receive attention and for whom few truly care.
Working on her projects, she finds herself continually drawn to the hidden strength and quiet struggles of women. In almost every story she follows, there is a deep connection to women’s lives and experiences.
She believes that a woman carries both the voice of the earth and the soul of her community, and that when a society loses the voices of its women, it loses part of its own soul and dims the breath of the earth itself. A woman is not a passing visitor upon the land, but a living part of it breathing with its breath and carrying its wounds in her body and spirit.
In her recent work, Fatma Fahmy focuses on the shifting relationship between women, land, and resilience in rural Egypt. She explores how environmental degradation, migration, and socio-economic pressures have reshaped the lives of communities living around Lake Qarun.
Her photography reveals the quiet struggles and enduring strength of women who remain tied to the land, despite the disappearance of its promises.
Building on long-term observation and closeness to the communities she documents, Fahmy captures how landscapes, memories, and daily survival are deeply intertwined. Her work highlights not only the visible environmental losses but also the emotional and social weight carried by the women who stay behind.
With support from organizations such as the Magnum Foundation, she continues to explore themes of belonging, resilience, and change across landscapes marked by ecological and human shifts.
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.
المعارض الفردية
2021 “Home is?”, Windybrow Arts Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa.
المعارض الجماعية
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 at Somerset House, London.
2022 Africa Foto Fair, Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
2022 “Women in the 21st Century” , IV Biennial of Photography LANN MuseumLuis in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
2021 “Identity “, f² Photo Festival, Dortmund, Germany.
2019 “Hakawi “- Tales of Contemporary Egypt, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris.
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