Above A labourer and his son pack away their tools following a day working on a private villa in New Cairo. They are returning to their home in downtown Cairo and are lucky to own a car, as public transport in the communities is sparse. (©Jason Larkin/Courtesy of Panos Pictures).

Taking the form of the now popular newspaper format, Cairo Divided: a megacity turns itself inside out, is the first in a planned series of publications which presents a collaboration between photographers and writers of ‘long-form’ essays. 

Working over a period of two-years Panos Pictures photographer Jason Larkin, and The Guardian’s Egypt corespondent Jack Shenker, explore the rapidly-mutating urban landscape of Egyptian capital. ‘From a population of one million at the beginning of the 20th Century to over 18 million today, Cairo’s expansion has been rapid,’ says Larkin. And whilst most capital cities around the world have seen their populations swell, ‘the speed with which the Egyptian one has grown in the last century is testament to both its remarkable centripetal power and surrounding vacuum of opportunity.’

‘This is a story about a city so large that it had to turn itself inside out,’ writes Shenker in his essay that accompanies Larkin’s colour images, ‘transforming its periphery into its core whilst condemning the previous centre to a life on the margins. It’s a process that began long before this year’s revolution and is continuing well beyond it, ripping apart old social and political fabrics and giving birth to a web of contradictions where the advance of private capital is marshalled by an aggressively retreating state, gated compounds for the elite are reimagined as inclusive national projects, isolation gets marketed as community and plush green golf courses can rise miraculously from some of the most arid land on earth.’

Above An 18-hole signature Greg Norman golf course dominates the the centre of Sodic’s ‘Westown’ project. The company insists it is careful to mitigate the environmental impact of its development as much as possible, but many experts question the sustainability of expending valuable water resources on luxury green fairways in the desert. (©Jason Larkin/Courtesy of Panos Pictures).

Larkin says he was drawn in to these vast spaces, ‘and surrounded by the drone of construction, I was mesmerised by the exposed layers of new urban centres being developed among the desert dunes. In focusing on these landscapes I wanted to capture the reality of fantasy lifestyles in mid-production, to document the extravagance of a few whose wealth put sharp focus on the fact that 40% of Egyptians live on less than $2 a day.’

Over the centuries, Cairo’s growth has remained largely checked by it’s physical geography, as it clings to a narrow strip of fertile land, irrigated by the River Nile; whilst beyond it’s confines, is nothing but arid desert. ‘Now, faced with the city’s barely contained chaos and alarmed by the growing slums, Cairo’s elite have begun to dream of escape,’ remarks Shenker, ‘Along the Ring Road, billboards advertise exclusive new private developments — Utopia, Dreamland, Palm Hills, Belle Ville and The Egypt of My Desires. Cairo’s future, it seems, lies outside the city’s boundaries, in the desert, where it can be built from scratch.’

Here in these isolated and secure communities, ‘Occupants of the narrow strata who are deemed wealthy enough to be offered a stake in the gated compounds of Cairo’s future are indeed being handed a chance, albeit within corporate-set parameters, to enter a new age of self-agency and creativity,’ suggests Shenker ‘where the physical walls and social restrictions of the traditional city have melted away to allow fresh identities to flourish.’

Above A street of individually-owned villas and apartment blocks rises from the sand in New Cairo. (©Jason Larkin/Courtesy of Panos Pictures).

Labourer Mohammed Sayed Mohammed, one of many working on the construction of these new gated communities, says, ‘After I finish this villa I’ll be lucky to ever be allowed back in; that’s why the owner is paying so much, to get away from the people.’ In a country where 90% of the population have seen their income decline in the last two decades, and are now poorer than when Egypt joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1991, these isolationist developments raise significant questions of social unease, as well as the environmental impact. 

A Sodic sales representative, the developer currently constructing, Westown, says, ‘It’s not a gated community, but don’t worry — security will be at every entrance ensuring only the right kind of people get in.’ Whilst at the heart of Westown, is a Greg Norman designed 18-hole golf course of pristine fairways, that stands as a surreal vision in a sea of desert. The development company responsible for it’s construction, ‘insists it is careful to mitigate the environmental impact of its development as much as possible,’ says Larkin, ‘but many experts question the sustainability of expending valuable water resources on luxury green fairways in the desert.’ 

In Cairo Divided, Larkin stands witness to what can only be viewed as a mass exit strategy, and with his camera, records the foundations of abandonment in pursuit of self-interest and exclusive isolation; which as psychiatrist Ahmed Okasha points out becomes a ‘triumph of isolation,’ and with isolation comes ‘dehumanisation,’ and with that unimaginable problems.

Cairo Divided is published by Unabridged in association with Panos Pictures.