Mohamed Ramadan is already the number one actor at the box office, on television and at the music charts across the Middle East. Now, he’s taking over the virtual world, appearing as a playable character in the world’s number one mobile game Garena: Free Fire.
Putting him on the cover of Esquire Middle East captures the star at a pivotal moment in his career, a time when he is at a new peak, and climbing an often-rocky terrain towards the next one.
To capture his foray into the digital dimension, we turned to a few of the most innovative and creative names in the region to create a photoshoot that is unlike anything we’ve seen before from the Egyptian mega-star.
“With Mohamed Ramadan recently becoming the first Arab celebrity to become a playable character on a globally recognized mobile game, we wanted to explore that idea and take it a step further. Brainstorming together with photographer, Abdulla Elmaz and the team, the idea was to create a whole unique digital world for Mohamad Ramadan,” says Matthew Baxter-Priest, Editor in Chief of Esquire Middle East.
The concept combines photos shot in studio at The Grip Studios in Dubai with virtual landscapes, combined with actual landscape shots taken from around the UAE, and then worked on by a team of CGI animators and artists to be both hyper-real and deliberately surreal, giving the shoot an uncanny quality.
Ground breaking photographer Abdulla Elmaz is renowned for his combination of studio photography and digital art, but despite his years of experience, making it work is far from easy.
“When we do things with CGI, we have a lot more expression to do whatever we want. But rather than make it easier, it actually makes it a lot harder in the end. People think, oh you can do anything so it’s easy. No, no, it’s so much more planning because we have to ideate each concept” says Elmaz.
It’s not just the planning—it’s the execution where things get tricky.
“One of the most challenging aspects of doing CGI is to kind of capture that essence of our concepts outside of the reality we’re creating virtually. For example, I’m not only taking a photo of a person who’s standing upright, I’m taking a photo of the person who’s standing upright that needs to look like he’s climbing up a mountain.”
“This cover is one of the hardest things that I’ve ever had to do in my career,” he continued.
Taking inspiration from the gaming world was a natural fit for the creative team. After all, Elmaz’s partner-in-crime on the shoot, VFX animator and augmented reality artist Ran Bensimon was inspired back in his childhood to take this approach to art because of gaming.
“Coming from a gaming background at a very young age, most of my influences as an artist today originated in the virtual realm. Being raised by Lara Croft and The Sims led me to want to engage more in the ways I create beyond the game itself,” says Bensimon.
For Benimon, digital art—be it animation, video games or otherwise—is art that is as worthy of being put in a museum as much as any Renaissance art. Concepts like this Esquire Middle East shoot, he believe, take that one step further towards that goal.
Therefore, working on this cover, besides being such an awesome and fresh way to combine many elements such as photography, gaming and fashion together, is also an enormous opportunity to expose this form of art, calling the viewers and critiques to contemplate about its essence,” says Bensimon.
Kate A Hazell, the fashion stylist behind Ramadan’s looks in the shoot, took inspiration from the landscapes that Elmaz and Bensimon had planned.
“Because our concept placed Mohamed in an unknown raw, natural location, I wanted the styling to blend seamlessly with the landscape and enhance the overall visuals. I chose utilitarian and technical menswear pieces from the SS21 runways in naturalistic tones – beiges, camels, sky blues, greys, burnt yellows etc – all shades that would complement the adventure but also be realistic if he really was wandering around a desolated desert,” says Hazell.
Behind the Scenes Shots by William Mullally; Photography by Abdulla Elmaz; Fashion Direction by Kate Hazell; Animation by Ran Bensimon; Hair and Make-up by Athina Doutis
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