Last Updated on 07/21/2017 by Chris Gampat
All images by Yasser Alaa Mobarak. Used with permission.
Photographer Yasser Alaa Mobarak is a 24-year-old, award-winning Egyptian photographer based in Delhi, India. He is not your typical street photographer. He’s one of the winners of the highly coveted Sony World Photography Awards. He’s also won prizes from The International Federation of Photographic Art, National Geographic Egypt, Photographic Society of America and Prix De La Photographie Paris. Of course, for such a young age, he’s quite decorated.
In fact, he’s achieved a whole lot in under 10 years. He started shooting when he was 18 when the Egyptian Revolution took place. “I saw strange events happening in my country for the first time so I decided to buy camera and start documenting these events,” he tells us. “This was the starting point of my photographic journey.” Along this journey, he drew influences from photographers Ashraf Talaat and Steve McCurry. For Yasser, photography became his creative tool for documentation, art, self-expression, and sharing his vision.
Call him young, but we should all be in awe of what he’s accomplished thus far. “I believe that photographic experience isn’t measured by years but measured by efforts and hardwork.” Indeed, his words ring true and all that matters at a certain point or another is drive. The hungrier you are as a photographer, the more driven you really are. At that point, gear doesn’t really matter. In fact, he calls his camera nothing more than a paint brush. When he does all this work, he uses a Nikon D3100, 18-55mm and 50mm lens. Indeed, nothing too crazy and perhaps breaking lots of the traditional ideas of street photography.
Part of what’s so beautiful about Yasser’s work is his love of colors, interacting with people, and how he is able to capture moments as they happen. He sees light very well but is also able to figure out ways to really just feel the moments he’s about to shoot.