Tewfic is a New York based freelance photographer specializing in documenting endangered cultures and traditional life ways of Asia, Latin America and Africa. His images, articles and photo features have been published in various international magazines, and his travel photographs are published in guidebooks and adventure travel catalogs. He also organized and led non-traditional photo expeditions/workshops. An ex-banker, he is quadrilingual and has lately become a Sinophile.

 

He is passionate about documentary-travel photography and produces multimedia stories, merging still photography and ambient sound. He also enjoys inserting his images of Asian fashion, culture and history into “photo films”.

 

He recently increased his focus on South East Asia and China. He produced a well received photo book Hau Dong: The Spirit Mediums of Viet Nam; documenting an indigenous religion now recognized by the UNESCO, as well as "The Old Qi Bao Teahouse", "Darshan", "Bali, The Island of Gods" and has recently published a voluminous monograph titled ‘Chinese Opera of The Diaspora’. His monochromatic photographs of the streets of Manhattan’s Chinatown during the Covid-19 pandemic from April 2020 to the end of May 2020 are part of the Museum of Chinese in America's Special Collection.

 

He is a faculty teaching member at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop, and a jury member at The Travel Photographer Society’s Photo contests.

​

Notice: “All images on this website are the property of Tewfic El-Sawy and protected under International copyright laws. Copying, duplicating, saving as a digital file, printing, publishing in form of media including web, manipulating, transmitting or reproducing without the prior written permission of Tewfic El-Sawy is strictly forbidden and would constitute a breach of copyright.”