Lamees Saleh Sharf Eldin‘s project Indefinitely has received the Tasweer Project Award and has been exhibited at both LagosPhoto and Image Festival Amman in 2025.
Established by Qatar Museums, Tasweer Photo Festival Qatar is being developed as a focal point for the personal and professional creative growth of photographers and image-makers in the region. Tasweer is building on Qatar Museum’s commitment to nurture artistic talent, and to develop Qatar’s arts economy and support the creative industry.
Launched in 2010, LagosPhoto is an international photography festival presented in Nigeria. In a month-long festival, events include exhibitions, workshops, artist presentations, discussions, and large scale outdoor prints displayed throughout the city with the aim of reclaiming public spaces and engaging the general public with multifaceted stories of Africa. LagosPhoto aims to establish a community for contemporary photography which will unite local and international artists through images that encapsulate individual experiences and identities from across all of Africa.
The Image Festival Amman is one of the longest-running cultural events in the region, the festival serves as a major platform for sustainable cultural exchange between local and international photographers. The festival aims to provide a platform for photographers in the region, attract a wider audience, and create opportunities for sustainable cultural exchanges involving both professional and amateur photographers. Altogether, more than 350 photographers from all over the world presented their work in the framework of the festival, becoming an anticipated cultural event in the capital, known as well as the longest cultural event to happen in Amman and the region that associates a great number of partners and artists.
Indefinitely
When a child is kidnapped in Egypt, the child’s family is suddenly shocked and sets out on their own to search among millions of people without any organized assistance or support. After filing a report, The families search independently in all the governorates, lose most of their money, and fall victim to scammers. Another child could be abducted at any time amid numerous loopholes that have gone unaddressed for years. That means the new family will begin their search alone for years, and the child abduction case will become one of the millions of cold, neglected cases. This project documents the neglected stories of kidnapped children and their families’ lonely journeys. It investigates cases spanning various periods and locations, starting from 40 years ago when a six-year-old girl named Rehab was kidnapped in Alexandria in 1982, leading to other stories following the 2011 revolution. In 2017 an average of 4 children were kidnapped every day within three months in one governorate, according to police reports in Egypt. These incidents occurred specifically during the summer months, commonly known as the abduction season. According to the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood in Egypt, more than 2,264 children were kidnapped in 2018 and 2019.
Lamees Saleh Sharf Eldin
Lamees Saleh Sharf Eldin is a documentary photographer and visual storyteller based in Cairo. She began her career during the January 25th Revolution of 2011, aiming to express and document the feelings of loneliness and identity loss in her country. Lamees was part of the Danish School of Media and Journalism (DMJX) educational program in 2021/2022. With a background in psychology and sociology, her artistic work is driven by a desire to visually expose and narrate social issues in Egypt. Lamees’s long-term project, Indefinitely, was shortlisted for the CAP Prize 2023, earned her a grant from the 2022 Prince Claus Fund, Arab Documentary Photography Program, and Magnum Foundation, and participated in the Copenhagen Photo Festival 2024.
