The Dahab Alleyway series documents a small street in the Sayyida Zeinab district of Cairo, photographed in 1994 during the period of my PhD fieldwork. I first encountered the alley while visiting the Cultural Park for Children, which had recently been completed and was already hosting activities and events for the neighborhood. Dahab Alleyway formed part of the broader Cultural Park project, whose design included the pedestrianization and reconfiguration of the alley itself as a public space connected to the park. Moving through this narrow street revealed an intimate urban environment—aging buildings, deteriorating façades, and small workshops where everyday life unfolded directly in the alley.

Many of the photographs capture moments of spontaneous interaction: children celebrating Eid, gathering playfully in front of the camera, and residents pausing amid the rhythms of the day. During one visit I was invited into the workshop of a group of upholsterers, whose craft and quiet concentration offered a glimpse into the small-scale economies embedded within the neighborhood. The alley functioned as a shared social space where work, conversation, and play overlapped—people sitting outside their homes, craftsmen laboring in partially open workshops, and children moving freely along the worn pavement.

At the time these black and white images were taken, Dahab Alleyway retained a fragile and timeworn character, even as it had already been incorporated into the Cultural Park’s urban design framework. In the years since, however, much of the physical fabric visible in these photographs has disappeared, with buildings demolished and the area undergoing significant redevelopment. The images therefore preserve a rare glimpse of a street that once formed part of a vibrant neighborhood environment but no longer exists in the same form today.