Belraha -
بالراحة, would have emerged no matter where she spent her last semester, Dempsey says. Still, living in Cairo offered her a creative opportunity she couldn't have seized upon in Canada. "From a photographic point of view, it's definitely been really fun to just be able to go to the desert," says Dempsey. This selection, a self-portrait, was taken in the Wadi Degla Protectorates. "The pictures make it look really remote," says Dempsey. It's actually roughly 30 minutes from the city, and "it can be kind of popping on some weekends," she laughs.
Still, desolate landscapes figure strongly in her final body of work. "That image, it kind of encapsulates the feeling of being alone," says Dempsey — an idea she relates to the broader metaphysical quandary that her project pokes at, namely "what sort of ethnic identity or space I occupy."