Born in Cairo, Egypt, Nabil started his photography career in 1992, shortly before leaving to New York and Paris to work in prominent photographers' studios.

Through the years he remained a close friend with the Egyptian-Armenian studio portrait photographer Van Leo (Leon Boyadjian, 1921–2001), who encouraged Nabil to leave to the West.

Many have been subject to Nabil's lens and distinctive technique of hand-colouring gelatin silver prints,[3] including artists Tracey Emin, Gilbert and George, Nan Goldin, Marina Abramović,[4] Louise Bourgeois, and Shirin Neshat; singers Alicia Keys,[4] Sting (musician), and Natacha Atlas; actors Robert De Niro, Omar Sharif, Faten Hamama, Rossy de Palma,[5] Charlotte Rampling, Isabelle Huppert,[4] and Catherine Deneuve.

It is set in an allegorical place that is a metaphor of a lost Egypt, sketching an intimate and solemn parallel between exile and death.

This video in which he reverently and inventively revisits the characteristics of Egyptian cinema’s golden age, with its movie stars and Technicolor film stock, he reconnects with the source and inspiration of his photographic imagery with which it shares the same personal, diaristic quality.