Photos

Luxor, near the Valley of the Queens.
There are a few shops where stone cutters relentlessly shape stones into vases. In order to attract the eye of customers,or just for the sake of art I am not sure, shop keepers like to paint naive drawings on their walls. ( I like the Egyptian Deities but not the flowers ) Actually this area was full of clay houses until recently. By new order all houses are being destroyed, because these areas used to be burial grounds they are full of antique tombs . The problem is just too sensitive. People dig pits under their basements and discover plenty of old egyptian artifacts that went on the black market. At least this is the story that goes on in Luxor.
This picture is showing a stone cutter's shop, the owner with his big smile was apparently proud of my interest in asking for a picture of his atelier.After all he was the BOSS. The problem here is that when a foreign photographer shows up, the natural tends to vanish, they want to pose, they laugh too much at each other's remarks, and if the photographer counts on patience until everything gets to normal, this can be too long. As I always say, luck has to be on your side too...