One Lonely Star, Alexandria 1999
Archival pigment ink on archival cotton-rag paper
115 x 75 cm
A bright yellow starfish seems to connect the blue of the foamy sea and the blond sand on which it is stranded. The photograph's pure, low-angle composition and astonishing chromatic qualities seem to defy the order of painting.
The velvety-toned atmosphere of One Lonely Star, Alexandria 1999 results from a technique that Egyptian photographer Youssef Nabil has made his trademark. He tints his black-and-white prints by hand using a process inherited from colour films in the 1940s. This photograph belongs to “Cinema”, a series united by the same charmingly outdated aesthetic.
Acquired by the Pinault Collection, One Lonely Star, Alexandria 1999 is being exhibited for the first time during Nabil's 2020 solo show “Once Upon A Dream” at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice.
