On The Front Lines in Cairo with Photojournalist Matthew Cassel

Things are changing fast in Egypt right now, and freelance photographer and journalist Matthew Cassel is experiencing it head-on. Cassel, who has been living and traveling throughout the Middle East since the age of 21 and speaks near fluent Arabic, is covering the events as they unfold in and around Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

Cassel has been successfully able to navigate a series of obstacles and get his images, emails, and tweets out of Egypt. The government shutdown of the Internet, and the near constant clashing with angry Mubarak supporters hasn’t kept him from getting images out of the country.

I was able to interview him via email yesterday, and as I follow his posts on Twitter today, I see that things continue to get ever more intense.

“Caught a rock to the head thrown by a thug, ain’t no thing. The revolution continues,” he said via Twitter today.

Ouch.

Keep up the good work, and stay safe please, Matthew.

1) Can you describe what the atmosphere is like for a photojournalist right now? Are people generally supportive of you documenting this moment in history?

The atmosphere in Egypt is not very welcoming for photojournalists at the moment, which should be expected during the final days of a dictator who’s ruled for 30 years. On one side, people protesting against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak have been nothing but supportive of the press as we attempt to document their struggle. They’ve been more than willing to talk to journalists and allow photographers to take their picture.

However, the government on the other hand has done all it can to see that media cannot properly work in the country. Not only have Internet and mobile phones been largely down for much of the past week since protests began, but security agents have constantly harassed and roughed up journalists, confiscated and damaged equipment, and detained anyone caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I found myself in such a situation while covering clashes between anti-Mubarak protesters and police in Cairo’s Imbaba neighborhood last Friday. Secret police violently grabbed me off the street and into a building where they tried to confiscate my CF cards. They were unable to get my equipment thanks to the support of activists and residents of the building who managed to defend me and sneak out my cards and camera while I was being detained.

These are the images they tried to prevent me from getting out.

2) The government cut off most access to the Internet, making it more difficult for people to get messages out. Yet, you have a steady stream of images making their way onto your website. How are you able to make that happen? What’s your current workflow process?

While most Internet providers were forced to stop service over the past week, one has remained in operation. As I understand it, this specific provider is used by banks and the stock exchange, and forcing them to shut down would’ve meant shutting down the Egypt’s economy. A friend of mine whose house I’ve been working at happens to have that net, but she’s only one of a few. So, while everyone else has either been struggling with satellite connections or unable to upload pics, I was working quite normally given the circumstances.

3) The environment must be pretty crazy right now. What things are you doing to keep yourself safe while still being able to do your job? How have the neighborhood protection committees been helping you?

I’ve lived in the region for almost seven years now, and that includes months in Cairo. I’m familiar with the culture and I’m near fluent in Arabic. I’ve also tried to stay with with local friends, journalists, activists (the two are really the same here actually) and others. All this has definitely helped me not get into too much trouble.

The neighborhood security groups have also been very helpful. Since the protests last Friday when Mubarak’s thugs (plainclothes security agents) took to the streets, the situation has been very tense and dangerous, especially at night. It’s good to know that if I am in trouble, I can easily jump into any neighborhood around the city and seek protection from the groups who are on the street all night long.

4) You’re really active on Twitter, firing off a steady stream of status updates from the ground. How has this helped people find your images?

Well, I’ve been tweeting because it’s been nearly impossible to get information out of here and Twitter has been a good way to do that. And because people have been desperate for information on Egypt they’ve been following my feed. Because I have a good number of “followers” now, when I tweet links to my images a lot of people are seeing them.