I never realised how photogenic mosques are until I visited Cairo. In fact, I started my holiday thinking the pyramids would blow me away, while I was only fairly excited about visiting the mosques. My idea of photographing a mosque was snapping a minaret silhouetted against a deep orange sunset. As it turned out, the pyramids didn’t disappoint but the mosques far exceeded my wildest expectations.

I always lumped mosques in with churches from a photographic point-of-view – decent architectural subjects, which don’t particularly inspire from an aesthetic point of view unless there is an unusual cloud formation or a storm-darkened sky. From the moment I arrived at Ibn Tulun Mosque in Islamic Cairo, my opinion changed.

The most impressive ...