Category: Photography

My brother has a thing for taking pictures of old and broken down buildings and I’ve posted the last two of his photo-sets on the blog before (here and here). He recently went and shot another building and uploaded a new photo-set on his flickr account. One picture grabbed my attention since it had an old poster advertising a wrestling event. I told him to send me a close up of that poster which he did and which you can see above and below. The poster was on a building that’s soon to be demolished on Fahad Al Salem street.

I don’t know how old the poster is since there isn’t any date on it, my brother thinks it’s the 80s but my rough guess based on a bit of online research would put this sometime in the early 60s. I think it’s very cool and someone needs to preserve stuff like this. Maybe the part of the wall that has these posters can be broken off or maybe just these pictures are enough?

Here is the link to the full set of pictures my brother took [Link]

Update: A reader was able to calculate what year the poster is from based on the day, date and my rough estimation. The best guess to when this poster dates back to is now 1965.

The other day @nibaq posted a 360 panorama of a graveyard in Kuwait and I found out he did it with an iPhone app called 360 Panorama. So I downloaded it and tried it out and found it incredibly easy to use. I just did a 360 interactive panorama of Fahad al Salem street which you can see by clicking [Here]

I think I will be doing various panoramas of places and events around Kuwait when I can and post them here since its so easy to do. The image above is NOT the 360 panorama, it’s just the flattened out panorama.

I thought Brett Jordan had finished scanning and uploading pictures his parents took when they were in Kuwait back in the 60s but I just noticed that he is still adding new pictures to his Flickr account. Check them out [Here]

My brother has a thing for taking pictures of demolished and broken down places. The last time he took some amazing and very eerie pictures of the abandoned Amiri Hospital and this time he was invited to take pictures of the currently being dismantled Radisson SAS.

To check out the pictures click [Here]

Today was the first day of GulfRun6 and it was exhausting. This year I’m helping them out with the video so I spent all day with a camera man walking around the track and setting up the framing for him. NegativEffect will be editing the video like last year so should turn out really good. Anyway I did manage to take some still shots with my camera, 3 of my favorite I’ve shared in this post.

Radisson Blu have posted pictures on Facebook of the demolition of the Peacock Chinese Restaurant. Looks pretty sad.

I also read online that Radisson Blu will be documenting the whole revamp of the hotel online via YouTube, Facebook and other social tools which is pretty cool. Other than the Peacock pictures they’ve also started posting pictures up of the rest of the hotel being dismantled like the picture above of one of their rooms with all the furniture removed. Check out their Facebook gallery for more pictures. [Facebook Gallery]

Thanks Jay

Brett Jordan is still scanning and uploading pictures of Kuwait from the early 60s. So far he has uploaded over 100 pictures and he’s still uploading. What I like about his collection of photos other than the fact they’re being scanned in super high resolution revealing some amazing details but also the fact some of them show Kuwait in a way I hadn’t seen it before.

He’s got some really great stuff there, the three pictures here are just some of the new one’s he’s uploaded. Here is the link to his collection [Link]

A few days back I posted two pictures that were taken by this guys parents back in the 1960’s when they were in Kuwait. Well the guy (Brett Jordan) has uploaded more pictures including the one I’ve posted above which is of the Sheraton roundabout. I can’t believe it was that beautiful. I can see Fahad Al Salem street in the background and it looks so green with all the trees! The whole street looks very spacious and clean, I wish it still looked like that today. Check out the rest of the pictures by visiting his flickr page [Here]

Today is the first day of REUSE 4.0 which is being held on the premises of the Australian College of Kuwait. REUSE 4.0 features a dynamic mix of art galleries, music, film screenings, mixed media installations, a lounge, go-kart sprints, trendy eco-fashion & accessories, prizes, surprises & more. My brother got invited to exhibit his abandoned Amiri Hospital pictures at the event and he was there yesterday and took some pictures of the event which you can check out below.

REUSE 4.0 is being held from today January 11th till Thursday the 13th. It’s open from 4pm to 9pm and you can get a lot more information from their website [Here]

Found these two picture on Flickr which were taken in Kuwait back in the early 60’s. They’re both by the same person (Brett Jordan) who I guess was working in Kuwait back then. The pictures were taken by the parents of Brett Jordan who digitized the shots and uploaded them to his Flickr account. I liked the car shot above because of the colors while the one below I liked because Kuwait looked so quiet and calm compared to today. Check out the originals [Here] and [Here]

Found some high resolution photos of Kuwait back in 1982. Not too many photos just 20 but I hadn’t seen them before. [Link]

Thanks WTFDating

It looks like the camera ban was just a rumor since Kuwait Times have posted a retraction! [Link]

On Saturday, November 20, 2010 the Kuwait Times published an article titled ‘Multi ministry camera ban frustrates artists’ in which incorrect information was provided. The newspaper regrets failing to verify the information. The article wrongly stated that a ban on DSLR cameras was implemented by the Ministries of Information, Social Affairs and Finance. This information is false. In a follow up investigation, it was proved that no such ban has been issued. We regret this error and deeply apologize for any inconvenience caused.

We apologize for any inconvenience? After having the world mock us based on their article they apologize for the inconvenienced caused? I would really hope the government fines them or gives them some form of punishment for all the bad publicity they gave Kuwait with their article.

It’s 28 minutes long but it’s worth watching. This law is just unbelievable, I can’t believe this is actually being enforced. You can’t take photos at the old markets, you can’t take pictures of the Kuwait Towers, you can’t take pictures at the Scientific Center, you can’t take pictures of anything anymore. [Video]

Update: Arab Times finally have written about this [Link]

It seems the ministry has banned the use of DSLR cameras (pictured above) in public places, streets and malls. You can take pictures with regular camera’s and camera phones but not with DSLR’s? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard.

I mean seriously whats the difference between a DSLR and Point & Shoot? Both can take pictures and both can have zoom lenses. Why ban the use of DSLR’s in public and not Point & Shoot cameras? I am not saying they should ban P&S cameras I’m just trying to highlight how ridiculous this new law is.

Maybe if someone from the ministry takes a few moments to go to flickr.com and search for the word Kuwait they can see exactly the kind of talented work they will be killing with this law. Maybe then they will realize how big a mistake this is.

You can read more about this on Kuwait Times [Here]

Some great photos. [Link]