{"id":2482981,"date":"2026-07-01T05:18:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T05:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2482981"},"modified":"2026-07-01T05:18:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T05:18:49","slug":"women-behind-the-lens-my-grandma-dressed-like-a-celebrity-even-matching-the-colour-of-her-cigarettes-to-her-outfits-global-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/women-behind-the-lens-my-grandma-dressed-like-a-celebrity-even-matching-the-colour-of-her-cigarettes-to-her-outfits-global-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Women behind the lens: \u2018My grandma dressed like a celebrity, even matching the colour of her cigarettes to her outfits\u2019 | Global development"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\"><span style=\"color:var(--drop-cap);font-weight:500\" class=\"dcr-1iwzucl\">T<\/span>his image is a portrait of me and my grandmother, Ehsan Ouf, in her flat in Cairo. It is part of a project <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/faridamahdy.weebly.com\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Grandma and the Fur Coat<\/a> that I started in 2024. I lived with her for four years, while I was studying photography, and we spent a lot of time chatting and watching TV on that couch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The dress I\u2019m wearing is her engagement dress from 1971 \u2013 one of the very few items she wore as a young woman that she still has \u2013 and the fur coat she\u2019s wearing was a gift from my late grandfather. I persuaded her not to sell it \u2013 and that is partly why I decided to start this project: to document how stylish she was. In the 70s and 80s she dressed like a celebrity, wearing brands such as Chanel and Dior. She had a collection of wigs, and even matched the colour of her cigarettes to her outfits.<\/p>\n<aside data-spacefinder-role=\"supporting\" data-gu-name=\"pullquote\" class=\"dcr-1qefndq\"><svg viewbox=\"0 0 22 14\" style=\"fill:var(--pullquote-icon)\" class=\"dcr-1usi6vc\"><title>double quotation mark<\/title><path d=\"M5.255 0h4.75c-.572 4.53-1.077 8.972-1.297 13.941H0C.792 9.104 2.44 4.53 5.255 0Zm11.061 0H21c-.506 4.53-1.077 8.972-1.297 13.941h-8.686c.902-4.837 2.485-9.411 5.3-13.941Z\"\/><\/svg><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"dcr-150m8vh\"><p>No one has shot her since my grandfather died so I wanted to continue his legacy<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/aside>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Sometimes she tries to convince me to wear a wig when I go out. I think she secretly doesn\u2019t like my curly hair.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">While I was living with her I started going through boxes of old photos. One of my favourites is a black and white photograph taken on the day she got engaged. Many of them were taken by my late grandfather. He loved photographing my grandmother. I never knew him \u2013 he died in 2000, two months after I was born \u2013 but we share the same love of photography. No one had shot her since he died so I wanted to continue his legacy \u2013 and do something for her.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"78e9a7e8-1c7c-42e6-8e04-07a87f699cf4\" data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-d9bay7\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-174mzkf\"><span class=\"dcr-vyhg7z\"><svg width=\"18\" height=\"13\" viewbox=\"0 0 18 13\"><path d=\"M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1cipnsy\">Ehsan Ouf with her late husband on their engagement day. <\/span> Photograph: Courtesy of  Farida Mahdy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"a6323123-f9e5-4f1f-af47-5e525fbd0ed6\" data-spacefinder-role=\"richLink\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-1oq85qr\"><gu-island name=\"RichLinkComponent\" priority=\"feature\" deferuntil=\"idle\" props=\"{&quot;richLinkIndex&quot;:6,&quot;element&quot;:{&quot;_type&quot;:&quot;model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement&quot;,&quot;prefix&quot;:&quot;Related: &quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot; Women behind the lens: \u2018Once naked, they formed a circle. The kicking and screaming occurred naturally\u2019&quot;,&quot;elementId&quot;:&quot;a6323123-f9e5-4f1f-af47-5e525fbd0ed6&quot;,&quot;role&quot;:&quot;richLink&quot;,&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2026\/jun\/03\/women-behind-the-lens-peru-ana-elisa-sotelo&quot;},&quot;ajaxUrl&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/api.nextgen.guardianapps.co.uk&quot;,&quot;format&quot;:{&quot;design&quot;:10,&quot;display&quot;:2,&quot;theme&quot;:0}}\"\/><\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">When my grandfather was alive they often hosted family and friends in the flat, but after his death people stopped coming to visit. Now her days are quiet, and sometimes lonely. As well as being a tribute to how fashionable she was as a young woman, this series reflects on the passing of time, and how life changes. I have started a second project, Ehsan, named after her, which focuses more on who she is now: a 78-year-old woman who is ageing gracefully.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.theguardian.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This image is a portrait of me and my grandmother, Ehsan Ouf, in her flat in Cairo. It is part of a project Grandma and the Fur Coat that I started in 2024. I lived with her for four years, while I was studying photography, and we spent a lot of time chatting and watching [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2482982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2482981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Women-behind-the-lens-\u2018My-grandma-dressed-like-a-celebrity.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2482981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2482981"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2482981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2482983,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2482981\/revisions\/2482983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2482982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2482981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2482981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2482981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}