Mealema - Fifi Abdou, Cairo, 2000

'I first wanted to make work inspired by the old Egyptian black-and-white films, because people were more beautiful in black and white and I wanted to still show that. Then later on I had the need to see my work in colour, so I decided to hand colour my black-and-white photographs using the same old photography technique, which would still keep this old cinematic feeling that I liked in black and white. I also wanted my work to be seen as paintings.'
(Youssef Nabil, in conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist, London, 27 April 2012 in J. Rouart (ed.), Youssef Nabil, Paris 2013, p. 29).