Najla Said

Najla Said is an Egyptian visual artist born and raised in Cairo, whose work delves into intimate and overlooked sides of Cairo, highlighting the underlying dynamics at play within the complex structure of its society. Said’s work directs our attention to notions of identity, femininity, and womanhood through a personal and introspective lens. 

Her series Sister, Oh Sister (اختي يا اختي) explores a first-person account of the experience of womanhood in Cairo. The series recontextualizes extracted elements within the Egyptian vernacular culture, in order to create alternative representations of womanhood. 

Said ventured into photography in 2019, and has pursued studies between Cairo, Paris, and Boston. She is currently based in Berlin where she is studying communication design. She works in a variety of media, ranging from photography and text, to video and sound and has been exhibited with the Mashrabia Gallery of Contemporary Art, at the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London (2021).Her work  has been featured in Photo Vogue, Azeema Magazine, and Nataal, among others.