Riad Shehata (died in 1942) was an Egyptian

Egyptians

Egyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...

 photographer.

He was the official photographer of the King of Egypt

King of Egypt

King of Egypt was the title used by the ruler of Egypt between 1922 and 1951. When the United Kingdom ended its protectorate over Egypt on 28 February 1922, Egypt's Sultan Fouad I issued a decree on 15 March 1922 whereby he adopted the title of King of Egypt...

, in charge of photographing royal events such as marriages, enthronement ceremonies and formal parties. He was the first Egyptian photographer to travel abroad; he went to Frankfurt in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 where he studied the art of photography

Photography

Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...

 extensively. He travelled around the world in order to take rare photographs. His studio was located in downtown Cairo

Cairo

Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

's Opera Square. After his death in 1942, the studio remained open under the same name. The Riad Shehata Studio was notably charged by King Farouk

Farouk of Egypt

Farouk I of Egypt , was the tenth ruler from the Muhammad Ali Dynasty and the penultimate King of Egypt and Sudan, succeeding his father, Fuad I, in 1936....

 with photographing in minute detail the extensive damage resulting from the devastating 1952 Cairo Fire

Cairo Fire

The Cairo Fire , also known as Black Saturday, was a series of riots that took place on 26 January 1952, marked by the burning and looting of some 750 buildings -- retail shops, cafes, cinemas, hotels, restaurants, theatres, nightclubs and the country's Opera House -- in Downtown Cairo...

. In 2003, 275 rare photographs from the Riad Shehata Studio were bought by a private collector from the photographer's family.