Sherif Sonbol already studied accounting - a proper education for a proper future - but soon followed his true passion: Photography.

Eventually, Sherif Sonbol became the main photographer of the Cairo Opera House from 1988-2008, hence the many pictures of ballet and Opera. Loving to bring the stories of the street, he started as a freelance photographer and journalist and Egypt's English speaking newspaper Al-Ahram Weekly, where he with time became chief photographer of the latter. Occasionally, Sherif Sonbol has written and published in other known Arab magazines such as Kalam el-Nas and Al-Sharq Al-Ausat.