Category: Photography

A few weeks ago I spotted a post by Gulf Bank on LinkedIn celebrating their 64 year anniversary. They had shared a few old photos but they were low-res and not really that great, so I decided I’d try and find some better ones, and I did.

According to Gulf Bank’s ‘About Us‘ page, the bank was founded in 1960. The page also mentions that in 1961, they hired architect Jean-Robert Delb to design their head office. While the building he designed is still their head office today, they only moved into it in September 1976, according to an old newspaper ad. Before that, they operated from a different head office.

Their original head office was designed in 1963 by Tony Irving and Gordon Jones of the Design Construction Group (DCG). The building was two floors and was composed of three separate buildings wrapped into one. The municipality for some reason had insisted that the owners of the units adjoining the bank adopt the identical architectural treatment, which is how we ended up with that iconic looking block.

Sadly, the original Gulf Bank head office building was recently demolished. It was the same building that had housed Richard’s Coffee and NIU, right across the street from Souk Mubarakia.

The photos above are from a 1972 issue of Aramco World and were taken by Burnett H. Moody. The black and white photo below was taken by Andy Warhol when he visited Kuwait.

The advert below was taken from Kuwait Times, September 1976 issue.

Years ago I found photos of Kuwait from 1980. I didn’t share all of them back then, but I just found the folder on my computer this morning and picked a bunch taken by The Architects Collaborative while they were in Kuwait back then.

When we look at old photos of Kuwait, we often see only beautiful shots which gives the inaccurate impression that everything was perfect back then. Which is why I like these unpolished photos of Kuwait which shows the beautiful old buildings starting to fall apart.

It feels like the architects captured a period when Kuwait was transitioning from old to new once again. Check them all out in hi-res here.

Muneera is an independent cultural researcher and documentary photographer who for the past 4 years has been going around Kuwait documenting post-oil houses. Her account is filled with beautiful but decaying homes, that even in their current state still look better than a lot of the newer generic buildings that have been popping up over the past few decades.

When Muneera first started documenting these houses she didn’t have any preconceived ideas of them. Their odd structure compared to buildings around them stood out to her, and their futuristic design contrasted with their deteriorating condition raised a lot of questions about the past and present:

• What happened back then?
• Why do we decide to build our homes the way we do?
• What contributes to shaping our homes, neighborhoods, streets, and cities?
• What impact does that have on our environment and lived experience in those spaces?

She’s documenting and researching these houses as a way to answer some of these questions, and understand the value of these buildings while considering the wider issues related to land use in Kuwait.

I’m always fascinated with Kuwait’s past and its stories, so I really appreciate Muneera’s effort in capturing these beautiful homes before they disappear forever.

Muneera was also initially documenting baqalas so she could look into their disappearance and the culture around it. She had to stop though since it was taking too much time and decided to focus on the house for now. I actually didn’t really notice baqalas disappearing until she brought it up. My two favorite baqalas in my neighborhood closed down years ago, one turned into a bubble tea shop, the other into a Filipino bakery. They really might be disappearing.

Check out Muneera’s account @th9neighborhood for more photos—she’s captured many beautiful buildings.

This is just a follow up to my post from a few weeks ago about the Ricoh GRIII. If you missed that post, basically I got the GRIII camera to use as a travel cam since I’ve been finding my Fuji X100V a bit cumbersome when traveling.

I took the Ricoh with me to Athens a couple of weeks ago and during the week trip I took 121 photos with my iPhone, and 304 photos with my Ricoh. That is crazy.

The fact I took more photos with the GRIII than my iPhone goes to show how great a travel camera is it. I carried the iPhone in one pocket in my shorts and the GRIII in the other and I always found it easier to pull out the GRIII snap a photo and put it back. It slips in and out of my pocket easier than the iPhone because my iPhone has the silicone cover. But also the iPhone is bigger so harder to pull out of my pocket while the GRIII is smaller so easier. Also it’s a lot easier to pull the camera out and press the power button to turn it on and start taking photos than it is to pull out the iPhone, tap to turn the screen on and then tap again to open the camera and then reposition my hand on the phone to take a photo.

I love the GRIII so much, if I wasn’t a camera hoarder I would sell my Fuji because I can’t think of a situation now where I would pick it over the GRIII.

Oh and another thing, I usually run my iPhone photos or Fuji photos through RNI afterwards to apply a filter, I wasn’t applying any filters to the Rioch photos, they all looked great as is straight out of the camera. I also enjoyed shooting with the 28mm lens over the 35mm lens of the Fuji. Especially when traveling, I feel a wider lens works better.

I do have one big complaint about the Ricoh though and one I’m surprised they haven’t solved yet with a firmware update. You can’t shoot photos in the 16:9 ratio! They only give you the option of 3:2 and 1:1. I appreciate 1:1 since that’s a square and what I use for my Instagram posts, but 16:9 is crucial for me since that’s the ratio of Instagram stories and how I share my photos.

Other than that the camera is perfect, I can’t recommend it enough. I got mine from BHPhoto for around $1,000. They’re usually out of stock but you can just buy it and once they restock they ship right away and straight to Kuwait. Link

Although I mostly highlight villas and commercial spaces as part of my design highlight series, the AB Penthouse is a rare instance where an apartment stands out for its beautiful design.

Perched atop a building in Salmiya, the AB Penthouse was completed earlier this year, boasting a 320m² area and its own private pool. This stunning penthouse was designed by the local architecture and interior design studio fortytwelve, the same team behind the stylish Ode Eatery.

The space has a lot of beautiful moments but I think my favorite has to be the walk-in closet with the large window that overlooks the sea (pictured above). Check out all the photos from this project on the fortytwelve website.

Photos were taken by @mashkanani

Sir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger was a British military officer, explorer, and writer. His first visit to the Gulf was in 1945, shortly after the Second World War, when he accepted a position as a researcher with the British Middle East Anti-Locust Unit (MEALU).

Based in Saudi Arabia, Sir Wilfred was able to travel to Kuwait and Bahrain, thanks to having access to a car. He made a second visit to Kuwait in 1949.

During both trips, Sir Wilfred captured numerous photographs, including some of Souk Mubarakiya, which I found particularly interesting and am sharing in this post.

These pictures are part of the collection at the Pitt Rivers Museum and are available to view online. If you’re interested in seeing more of the photos he took during his time in Kuwait, you can explore them at prm.web.ox.ac.uk or by checking the two links below:

Thesiger’s Journeys in Arabia – Hejaz and Nejd, Saudi Arabia 1945
Thesiger’s Journeys in Arabia – Kuwait and Saudi Arabia 1949

I found these really old aerial photos of Kuwait City while browsing through the Tareq Rajab Museum photography archive so decided to scan them to share. There wasn’t a date on them but I’m assuming they were taken in the early 1950s. I came to that assumption since in one of the photos I could see the Thunayan Al Ghanim Building under construction, and that was completed in 1954.

Thunayan Al Ghanim Building is the old building on the corner of the Sheraton Roundabout. It was considered to be one of the most advanced buildings in Kuwait at the time, and one of the first to have an elevator. There are stories of bedouins coming in from the desert to watch “the flying horse” that could go up and down. The Thunayan Al Ghanim building housed the original KOC offices, the British Consulate, the first English bookshop in Kuwait, as well as the Sultan Gallery and the Rolls Royce dealership.

It’s kind surreal looking at these photos since it was really that long ago. In some of the photos you can make out the new buildings that were popping up beside the old houses. If you want to see how it would have looked like if you were in one of the alleyways looking towards the more “modern” buildings, click here.

All these photos were taken from a plane and I’m assuming on the same day, but don’t quote me on that.

I’ve been using my Fuji X100V camera since 2021. It’s been a great camera and one I’ve previously posted about being the best travel camera. But, I recently purchased the Ricoh GR III and I think I might have to take that comment back.

The Fuji was a pretty nice travel camera upgrade compared to the camera I was using before that, a Sony A7 III with a prime lens, and the Sony RX1 full sensor point & shoot I had before that. But, over the past couple of years I’ve been finding it more of a hassle to carry the Fuji around when traveling, especially because phone cameras have gotten so much better. Also, because of how popular the Fuji camera has become (thank you TikTok) and the prices gone up due to scarcity, I stopped slinging it across my shoulder out in the open like I used to before. That means I need to carry it in my shoulder bag making it a hassle and a slow process to use.

So I started looking at alternatives and decided on the Ricoh GR III. It was the camera I was initially deciding on when I got my Fuji. It’s got a similar sized APS-C sensor but in a body that is a lot more compact. I also went with the 28mm version (they also come in 40mm) so that it’s a wider field of view than my Fuji’s 35mm which should be better for travel photography.

Similar to the Fuji, the Ricoh has a cult following and so the cameras are also out of stock all the time. But, I got lucky and found the Diary Edition on BHPhoto. It was backordered like all the Ricohs, but the Diary Edition with my luck had an estimated in-stock date of around 2 weeks. I guess someone must have canceled and I was checking the website at the perfect time. I placed the order and once it was in stock they shipped it straight to Kuwait.

First impressions, I love it. I got the Diary Edition because it was the one that was available but the only difference over the regular version is the color. The normal GR III is black, Diary Edition is a warm grey, I have zero preference, both are nice in their own way and I wouldn’t care less which one I had.

The camera is tiny, it’ small enough to fit into my tight jeans pocket which means it can easily fit into all my other pockets as well. In winter it definitely won’t be an issue stuffing the camera in one of the may jacket pockets so it already has a big advantage over the Fuji. The other thing I really like about it is the fact I’m shooting more with the camera. This is going to sound weird but the best thing the Fuji has the Ricoh doesn’t have is the electronic view finder. It makes shooting a lot more enjoyable. But, because the Ricoh doesn’t have a viewfinder, it’s making me shoot more. Mainly because it’s quicker since I don’t need to raise the camera up to my eye. And also by not raising the camera up to my face, it makes me less noticeable that I am taking pictures, so I take more. I know I could shoot with the rear screen of the Fuji which also has the advantage of tilting, but because I like using the EVF, I’ve just gotten used to using the Fuji that way and I’ll always prefer the EVF over the rear screen.

I have a trip coming up in two weeks time and will be taking my GR III with me. Once I’m back I’ll post about the experience. For now, if you have any questions let me know.

A couple of weeks ago, I revisited the Tareq Rajab Museum to explore their private photography archive again. This time, I discovered several more interesting items, including the beautiful old photo above, taken sometime in the 1970s, of a mosque in Kuwait.

I didn’t recognize the mosque, so I asked my Twitter followers if they knew it, and one person did. It turns out the mosque is called Ahmad Abdullah Mosque, and not only is it still standing, but it’s also located practically across the street from my office.

The mosque is located in Kuwait City and was built in 1915. It’s situated in the area behind Dickson House, where the old city project is currently under construction.

Although the project is cordoned off with a wall, there are two mosques in the back that are still accessible through a gate. As soon as I saw the mosque, I recognized it as the same one, even though the part of the mosque that housed what looks like a baqala in the old photo seems to have been demolished at some point.

I took some photos of the mosque, but since it’s currently right next to the wall surrounding the construction site, I couldn’t capture the exact same angle as the old photo.

If you want to check out the mosque in person, here is the location on Google Maps.

I don’t recall coming across a photo of Kuwait’s shoreline that was older than this. I was doing some research for an upcoming post when I went down a rabbit hole and ended up coming across a report from 1903 that contained photos, maps and some interesting information on Kuwait. One of the photos was the image above of Kuwait’s shore which I hadn’t seen before, but there were also some other ones inside I also hadn’t seen which I’ve shared below.

The report is made up of 2 volumes and the original copy is part of the British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers . The report was compiled by Captain H. H. Dowding after his visit to Kuwait during the winter of 1901-02 while the photographs were supplied by Baron Curzon of Kedleston.

You can actually download the whole report as a PDF from the Qatar Digital Library. If you want to check it out, click here.

The British Bank of the Middle East was originally called the Imperial Bank of Persia and operated out of Iran. In 1952 it abandoned the Iranian market and renamed itself to British Bank of the Middle East. In 1959, BBME was acquired by The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC).

Last week while looking for information on an old photography studio called “Studio Sharq”, I ended up coming across old photos of BBME in Kuwait (they were credited to Studio Sharq). HSBC scanned old photographs of two of their old branches, the first location that opened in 1952 as well as their second location that opened in 1964.

Along with photos of the exterior of the bank they also have photos of the interior and of the opening ceremony.

If you want to check them out, click here.

This might be one of my favorite projects so far in Kuwait. Inspired by Kuwait’s traditional courtyard houses, the Zen Villa features a deliberate minimalist design intended to envelop residents in a panoramic view of surrounding palm trees and horse barns. It was designed by the local award winning firm Fikrr Architects, and is located in Wafra.

Each room in the Zen Villa was designed with expansive windows spanning the full width of the walls, connecting the family with the surrounding nature.The interior palette and materials were influenced by the surrounding landscape, echoing the desert through hues of yellow, beige, and green. This approach harmonizes the villa with its environment, infusing it with the warmth and tranquility of the natural world outside.

Even the roof was given attention to. By maintaining a clean and uncluttered roof, the architects overcame the challenge of heat impacts that would be generated by heavy equipment such as AC units which could then travel into the center courtyard.

For more  photos of the villa, check out their instagram @fikrr and their website fikrr.com

Photos by @ngphoto.com.pt

Here’s some good news to start the day, according to TEC, the Wall of Peace sculpture by Kuwait artist Jafar Islah which is located behind Burger King on the Gulf Road will NOT be demolished as part of the refurbishment of the waterfront.

Even more good news, I managed to find out the names of the two saluki dogs owned by the Dickson’s from my post the other day. Brian Duggan, the author of Saluki: The Desert Hound and the English Travelers Who Brought It to the West managed to dig up the old letters Zahra had sent him and in the letters she mentions the names of their two dogs, Dhabaan and Khataaf.

Update: Not only will the Wall of Peace not be demolished, but according to TEC it will also be restored to it’s original marble state!

This post was supposed to be a silly one, but after I started writing it I went down a rabbit hole and found some interesting information, so bear with me.

A couple of weeks ago I got access to Tarek Rajab Museums’ private photography archive, and part of their collection were the family photos of the Dicksons. While going through those photos, I came across a number of photos of their dogs. They were beautiful shots and I joked that they were probably the oldest photos of pet dogs taken in Kuwait. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that was probably true. How many people in Kuwait had cameras back in the 1920s let alone one they’d use to take random photos of their dog? Not many.

I found five beautiful photos, some taken outside the Kuwait wall which you can clearly see in the backdrop of the photos. H.R.P Dickson lived in Kuwait with his wife Violet Dickson, and daughter Zahra Freeth from the 1920s until the 1940s.

I started off by trying to find the names of their two dogs, so I took out my copy of H.R.P Dickson’s “The Arab of the Desert” to see if he mentions them anywhere, and ended up finding a whole chapter where he talks about Salukis. Turns out they were popular dogs in Kuwait at that time and mostly used for hunting. Also, unlike other dogs, Salukis were not considered “najis” (unclean) so were allowed to enter the tent and lie on the rugs and mats. But, Dickson never mentioned his dogs, so I started to think maybe they weren’t his.

I kept digging and it led me to buying the book “Saluki: The Desert Hound and the English Travelers Who Brought It to the West“. In it there are a few pages that talk about Dickson’s dogs and turns out they actually did get two Saluki dogs in 1929 while in Kuwait. The dogs accompanied H.R.P Dickson everywhere he went because he found them to be a good conversation starter with tribesmen, and his wife Violet was mostly responsible for walking them daily. I couldn’t find the names of the dogs, but at least I got verification they were in fact their pets.

I believe the young girl pictured above is their daughter Zahra.

Update: I managed to find out the names of the dogs! Brian Duggan, the author of Saluki: The Desert Hound and the English Travelers Who Brought It to the West dug up photos Zahra had sent him and on the photos she had written the names and the dates of two male salukis, Dhabaan and Khataaf.

Brian also discovered that in the book The Arab of the Desert, HRP Dickson mentions the name of his female saluki as well, Turfa.

Last year while visiting the set of the Netflix show, The Exchange, I saw an old Kuwaiti village being constructed for another show. The village was looking amazing and very realistic, but I couldn’t take photos to share since the show hadn’t been released yet.

A few weeks ago I remembered the village again and got in touch with Beyond Dreams, the studio behind The Exchange to see if I could pass by to take some photos. Turned out my timing was perfect since they had built an even larger village since my last visit, and it was for a new show that is airing on TOD and beINDrama this Ramadan called “Zaman Alajaj” (Time of Dust).

The village is huge, if you stand on one side you can’t see the other, there are alleyways, animals, and even a small farm with real vegetables growing. There is a street filled with shops, a village square, homes, and even a graveyard. So many details and all very realistically reproduced.

What is even more incredible is that the village is located in the suburbs, and not out in the middle of the desert. So one minute you’re stuck in traffic, and the next you’re walking around an old village with no cars in sight. The feeling is very bizarre, and because there are no tall buildings outside the wall, it really adds to the feeling that you’re in a village in the middle of nowhere.

All the structures are real and functional, so it not just a facade. If you open a door there is something behind it, it could be someone’s home, or it could be a shop selling spices, there will be something. The details are all there, and I remember it was the same thing when I visited the set of The Exchange.

Zaman Alajaj is being produced by Abdullah Boushahri, and the same team behind The Exchange. The story follows Wijdan (played by Mona Hussein), a woman seeking refuge from her abusive father and ends up infiltrating this simple village. It’s a drama with an intense and suspenseful storyline filled with conspiracies and conflict.

The series was produced for TOD and so will air exclusively on TOD and beINDrama. If you want to check out the trailer, it’s now up on @tod.tv

Note: This is a private set built for the show and so it not accessible to the public.