Behind the Velvet Rope
In Myriam's words 'I have been documenting Manhattan Society people since January 2006: focusing of their nightlife where exteriors signs of wealth are obvious because exaggerated. The images represent mainly details, postures and attitudes. My goal is to document a different way of living as well as behaving and not to tell a story about the people themselves.

‘Not long ago, the superrich of New York were a knowable entity. There were so few of them, they were the Guggenheim or the Rockefeller…. We knew who they were, what company they owned, or where their family had made all its money. And that’s as far as it went. Mostly, they stayed out of our way; the superrich were one minuscule subculture in a city that had better things to worry about. But somewhere along the line, as great torrents of cash came pouring into Manhattan, it stopped being possible to ignore them as an the average two-bedroom apartment now costs $1.2 million! For most New Yorkers, this is a maddening spectacle: When will things return to normal? The more rich people there are, the tougher it is for everyone else to get by, to afford apartments and live in New York. The effects, however, are not entirely bad. The superrich have created their own ecosystem, they have also helped forge a sophisticated $488.8 billion economy, driven by highly specialized services and full of opportunity. For a city that was never blessed with great natural resources—there are no oil reserves in Brooklyn, no veins of gold in the Bronx, their great wealth may prove to be to New York what oil is to Saudi Arabia: a power source of seemingly inexhaustible supply that provides a huge array of jobs and other benefits for nearly everybody else.' From the New York Magazine, April 18, 2005 Issue

Myriam Abdelaziz: Born in Cairo in 1976, she grew up in Geneva before moving to Cairo for the first time in 1987 and then to Paris in 1996. Myriam received her BA in Political Science from the American University in Cairo and a Master in Journalism from Paris X University. After starting a career in International Communication in Paris, Myriam moved to New York to focus on photography. She graduated from the International Center of Photography and has been based in New York since 2005. She is currently mainly working on stories in Africa and the Middle East.

Selected Awards:-Winner -Chosen, AP #23, New York, USA, 2007, Finalist, La Bourse du Talent #32: Le Portrait Dans Tous Ses Etats, Paris, France, 2007, Finalist, PhotoEspana, Madrid, Spain 2007

Selected Publications Include:- La Republica del Donne, Italy, 2007, Eyemazing, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2007, American Photography #23, USA, 2007, The British Journal of Photography, UK, 2007, Fortune Magazine, USA, 2007, Queens Chronicle, USA, 2006, Shift book, USA, 2006, Technikart Magazine, France, 2005, PHOTO Magazine, France, 2005

Selected Group Shows Include:-Empty Quarter Gallery, Dubai, UAE, March, 2008, Portraits of a Genocide, United Nations Headquarters, New York, USA, August, 2008, On Navajoland, Gallery 171- 173, New York, USA, October, 2008, La Bourse du Talent 2007, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, December 2007, Diversity of Devotion, Brooklyn Public Library, New York, USA, January, 2007, Diversity of Devotion, Safe-T Gallery, New York, USA, September, 2007, Descubrimientos, PhotoEsapna, Madrid, Spain, June 2007, Slideluck Potshow, Neo Studios, New York, USA, November 2006, Shift, International Center of Photography, New York, USA, June 2006, Selections, Espace Beaurepaire, Paris, France, November 2005, In Adam’s Bed, Galerie Les Mots à la Bouche, Paris, France, August 2005, Derrière la Vitre, Centre Binet de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France, May 2005, PRO/AM # 2, Espace Beaurepaire, Paris, France, March 2005, Sony Gallery, AUC, Cairo, Egypt, June 1998.