Biography
Born in 1984, Philipp Spalek spent the fi rst 6 years in his hometown Berlin, before he moved to Syria with his family in 1990, where he missed most of the post-communist turbulences in Eastern Germany. In Damascus, he visited an American School and got in touch with the Arabic Language. At the age of 10, he moved back to Germany,but always kept a close relationship to the Middle East. During travels to Syria, Egypt and Southeast Asia, he discovered his interest in photography. Still fascinated by the Arabic language after fi nishing High School, and convinced, that language and cultural knowledge would hand him the tools to tell the stories, he wants to tell, he started to study Middle Eastern Studies and Modern History in Freiburg. During his studies, he worked as a photographer for Al-Shuruq newspaper in Cairo and for various German newspapersand magazines. He learned fl uent Arabic and now lives and works both in Cairo and Berlin.