Born in Cairo in 1972, Youssef Nabil has always been fascinated with the glamour and style of early Egyptian cinema, the black and white photo-novels published at the time and the hand-coloured family portraits that still adorn most living rooms in Cairo. He started taking pictures after being rejected by the Institute of Cinema in Cairo and used his friends to stage scenes which he would ideally liked to have filmed. These early images set the stage for all his subsequent work which was further influenced by his close friendship with the legendary Egyptian-Armenian photographer Van Leo. Van Leo is celebrated for his glamorous studio portraits of famous Egyptian actresses of the 1950s and 60s and Nabil spent many hours watching him at work in his studio. While working as a photographers’ assistant in prominent studios New York and Paris in the 1990s, he started producing his staged, constructed and meticulously hand-coloured black and white portraits of celebrities, close friends and fellow artists such as John Waters, Shirin Neshat, Tracey Emin and Ghada Amer.

Nabil tells 'stories' through his carefully constructed images. In his words: "I always like to tell stories through my work; the more simple the photo is, the more complicated the story becomes. What's the point in making a photo if it doesn't have something to say?" Nabil's images have a cinematic quality and explore the interior and exterior worlds of drama, beauty, glamour, sexuality and identity. In his latest body of work titled Sleep in My Arms, Nabil gives us access to stories about his relationships with various male friends through his delicately coloured, quiet and intimate portraits. A voyeur by nature, Nabil places these young men in situations of his own imagining and sets up dreamlike moments that are imbued with a brooding sexuality.

Click here to read the essays and statements published in Youssef Nabil: Sleep in my arms, Michael Stevenson Gallery and ABP Autograph, 2007.

Nabil's exhibition and book are kindly supported by IFAS (French Institute of South Africa).

1. Hope to die in my sleep, Self-portrait, Viñales 2005

2. I always need some water at night, Paris 2001

3. Self-portrait with broken doll, Athens 2000

4. Self-portrait next to the fire, Paris 2004

5. Marc, Paris 2004

6. Malik sleeping, Paris 2005

7. Freddy looking for his doll, Paris 2003

8. Sleep in my arms, Brooklyn 2005

9. Rafik, Paris 2007

10. Self-portrait, Naples 2003

11. Karim, Harlem 2007

12. Mohamed with eyes closed, Cairo, 2001

13. Ali, Paris 2007

14. What have we done wrong? Cairo 1993

15. Red Egyptian nightgown, 2007

16. Amr, Paris 2006

17. Rafik au salon, Paris 2006

18. Yassin, New York, 2006

19. Amir, New York 2006

20. Russell, New York, 2006

21. Salim Kechiouche, Paris 2005

22. Not afraid to love, Paris 2005

23. Ayman sleeping, Paris 2005

24. Ayman, Paris, 2005

25. Yassin in bed, New York 2006

26. Jamal, Harlem 2007

27. Deux Djellabas, Paris 2007

28. Ahmed in djellebah, New York 2004 Sold out

29. Rashid with a shisha in his mouth, Paris 2004

30. Malik, Paris 2005

31. Ali in abaya, Paris, 2007

32. Ahmed on Egyptian carpet, Brooklyn, 2005

33. Self-portrait with the sunset, Rio de Janeiro 2005

34. Self-portrait, Barfleur, 2005

35. Will I ever come again? Self-portrait, Havana, 2005