In Between

2014-01-28

In Egypt the aftermath of a bloody summer is still palpable. In the southern city of Minya, the blackened church spires contrast a group of demonstrators holding yellow balloons: Morsi supporters are demanding that their president rule once again.

The army enforces a strict curfew across the country. Whoever wants to go out after midnight has to find a way through the checkpoints. TV stations are talking about the US and about foreign media - "liars from the sty of the Muslim Brotherhood", the logo in the upper left corner clarifies what it's all about: "Egypt fights terrorism".

While the national paranoia is fueled by the media, Bieke Depoorter and Ruth Vandewalle are travelling through the country. In packed microbuses they travel from Minya to the oasis of Fayoum and beyond to the Nile Delta.

This is a follow-up project of Caïropolis.

Team members

Bieke Depoorter

Bieke Depoorter (°1986) completed her Master in Photography at the Kask in Gent (Belgium) in 2009.

Ruth Vandewalle

Ruth Vandewalle finished her master's degree Middle East Studies and Arabic in Cairo, where she is based since 2009. She started working as a news producer during the Arab Uprisings in 2011. Since then she has covered the news from all over the Middle East, producing numerous reportages for different European media.

As a documentary maker and researcher, Ruth prefers to work on social and cultural stories that show a broader perspective and a diverse image of the region. She is often on the road, working in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Oman & Algeria or wherever stories take her.

As a freelance correspondent Ruth mainly works for Dutch and Belgian TV, radio and written press. She has won the Dutch journalistic 'De Tegel' award in 2014 for the reportages she made in Syria for the Dutch current affairs program 'Nieuwsuur'.

Together with Magnum Photographer Bieke Depoorter, Ruth worked on the book 'As it may be' for which she wrote an essay about postrevolutionary Egypt and the process of Depoorter's journey through the country that started in 2011. The book was published by Aperture (US) and came out in 2017.

Find Ruth on twitter via @ruthruthcairo
Email: ruth.vandewalle [at] gmail.com

Supported

A working grant of € 4,110 allocated on 8/11/2013.

FPD/2013/1050

Grant

Pascal Decroos Fund

MAGAZINE

dS Weekblad (25 January 2014)
Le Monde Magazine (29 March 2014)

ONLINE

TIME Lightbox (15 April 2014)

need resources for your own investigative story?

Journalismfund Europe's flexible grants programmes enable journalists to produce relevant public interest stories with a European mind-set from international, national, and regional perspectives.

Apply