Randa Shaath (Philadelphia, United States, 1963) was born to a Palestinian father and an Egyptian mother, lived in Beirut from 1969 until 1977 and currently resides in Cairo. She received a BA in Middle Eastern Studies from the American University in Cairo, and a MA in Visual Mass Communication from the University of Minnesota. She worked as a photographer for Agence France Press in Egypt and Gaza in 1994, and for the Al Ahram Weekly newspaper since 1993. She worked on various projects in Palestine, Nubian villages, and Cairo. In the Cairo project she captured daily life in the city, on the streets and the rooftops, and on its forgotten islands.

Recent exhibitions include The state of Palestine, Sony Gallery, American University Cairo (1998); In the Heart of the Nile (islands of Cairo); Atelier Le Caire, Cairo (1999); Nubian Life, The Nubian Museum, Aswan (Egypt) (2000); and Being There, in Home works: A forum on cultural practices in the region, Beirut (Lebanon) (2002).