Sweet Temptation, Cairo 1993

In front of an abandoned card game, one woman tries to catch another's dissipated glance in a loving gesture. The pastel tones and dressy outfits evoke the old-fashioned charm of imagery made immortal by post-war cinema.

Photographer Youssef Nabil made the double portrait Sweet Temptation, Cairo 1993 before going into exile. It celebrates an Egypt of liberated morals, far from religious prohibitions, as depicted in 1940s films. Fascinated by that era and its cinema's vitality, he seeks to reproduce its particular aesthetics using a hand-colouring technique.

Sweet Temptation, Cairo 1993 was presented for the first time by the Pinault Collection during Nabil's 2020 solo show “Once Upon A Dream” at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice.