It’s the 15th Mashrou3 Al Mareekh, a monthly open-mic night for young and up-and-coming talent at Azhar Park, and the crowd is full of excitement. In the corner, there’s a plain white booth with a camera set up in front while two young men, Ahmed Tahoun and Ahmed Kamal, sit awkwardly by it.

Soon enough, one member of the crowd gets curious and heads over to check it out, another person follows and another one after that until there’s a long line of people waiting to get their portrait taken at this makeshift, portable photography studio, now known as Berwaz, or Frame.

“The first hour we were just sitting there and had everything set up,” says Tahoun, the founder of Berwaz. “The awkward moment is usually over as soon as one person comes in and starts posing, then a flow of people follow.”

Tahoun had been playing around with the idea for years until he finally decided to launch it on July 1 of this year. As a photographer, he was used to covering concerts and events by taking pictures of the band or whoever was on stage. Tahoun, however, felt that audience members deserve as much camera time as those on stage, since they are usually the ones generating the energy.

Tahoun teamed up with his friend and partner Kamal, who became responsible for the business development aspect of the project. At first, the duo wanted to take Berwaz out onto the street to take random portraits of people on the streets of Cairo. Unfortunately, due to the never-ending hassle of permits, that dream couldn’t materialize.

Instead, the Berwaz team decided to start with publicly organized events to set their studio up at. Berwaz then went on set up at the Maadi Color Festival and the Egypt.Now Festival.

The pictures turned out to be no ordinary, standstill portraits that you would take at your neighborhood Kodak. Instead people got creative by jumping in the air or making funny faces. The final product is available online, free of charge, on Berwaz’s website and Facebook page.

“Our pictures are available online, but we’re trying to work on giving the pictures on the spot. It’s a bit difficult considering the quality of the pictures, but we’re working on it,” says Tahoun.

Aside from printing their pictures, Berwaz is working on developing their brand even further.

“After our first event, someone invited us to shoot at their wedding so we started going into that field,” says Kamal. “Regardless of the financial [reward], the experience alone was worth it.”

Kamal adds that even though public events provide them with more exposure, private events are more fun and exciting as you see people dressed in suits and fancy dresses willing to lay on the floor, jump in high heels or look silly in their perfectly done hair and makeup.

Tahoun recalls thinking to himself, “If I go out into private events, I don’t want to be the typical wedding photographer,” he says.

“It’s about creating photography in a new way, like how wedding photographers used to come with the hotel package for LE 150. But Fadi Gwanny started broadening that concept and all the other photographers started emulating his idea,” adds Tahoun.

While Kamal admits that there are already people who carry out the same concept, he adds that it’s not quite the same. “We’re not just stuck with the concept of taking pictures in a booth with accessories,” he says. “We’re trying to develop it by having a theme for every event with its own background and accessories. We’re talking to suppliers to give us material to work with, getting stylists for the day to dress people according to the theme, and having artists paint a background for us.”

“What we’re doing now is easy for anyone to do, and if someone has more money then they can do it even better, but we are focusing more on the experience,” adds Kamal.

The Berwaz team ensures that it goes beyond a mere photographer to client relationship. “We come out of the event with new friends,” says Tahoun.

“Especially the photographer, all the girls surround him at the event and add him on Facebook after,” jokes Kamal. “I’m mostly backstage so no one pays attention to me or adds me on Facebook,” he adds, laughing.

Not that he would have time to respond to friend requests, as Kamal is working hard on developing their new brand, Azione, which means ‘action’ in Italian. Quite literally, Kamal wants to move from a still picture in a frame into action mode with current talks underway regarding commercials, billboards, photo shoots for fashion lines and video productions.

“We are constantly looking to see if there’s anyone else on the same step that we are on, and if there is, then we just move to the next step,” says Kamal. “Right now, even we don’t know what we can come up with in the end.”

Still, Berwaz promises to stay true to their original message of ‘street photography’ by going to public events, and they are still working on getting permits to shoot portraits on the streets of Cairo. And then maybe move on to other governorates.

At the end of the day, Berwaz is sure to put a smile on anyone’s face. Kamal promises, “We are friendly, portable, and we will make you happy.” et