Category: Photography

Not sure why film is all of a sudden taking off in Kuwait but Ajas is another local online store that sells film cameras. Their prices are slightly higher than CRATE whom I posted about recently, but they have a pretty cool ad (posted above) so all is forgiven. Check them out at shopajas.com

If you’re looking for a place to develop your film check out my previous post here.

There are still a few places that develop 35mm film in Kuwait (example) but film options available are really limited. CRATE (@bycrate) is a local online store that sells 35mm and 120mm film as well as some cameras (disposable and reusable).

Prices are expensive or reasonable depending on how you look at them. They sell the Lomography “Simple Use Film Camera 400” for KD10 which is more expensive than the Lomo website but cheaper than if you ordered it yourself. But then you have the 800T Cinetstill film for example which they’re selling for KD8 but costs KD4 online so slightly cheaper if you ordered it yourself. Want it now and don’t want to bother ordering the stuff online? Then you’re going to have to pay a bit of a “premium”.

If you’re interested in film, check out their website bycrate.com

I’ve never really been interested in astrophotography myself since it’s a pretty time-consuming process that requires a lot of patience, but I do find the process interesting. I also assumed we wouldn’t be able to get good photos in Kuwait due to the light pollution but a local photographer is proving that assumption to be false.

Abdulmohsen Alreesh is a local photographer who has been capturing some great photos of our solar system and posting them on his Instagram account @mi7sen89. Not only that but he’s also listing the equipment he’s using as well as the capture details. For example, below is the info he shared related to the photo above:

Rosette Nebula NGC 2244

Description: The beautiful rosette nebula! Named because of the nebulosity that resembles rose petals. I actually see a skull but still a very cool target. The cluster and nebula lie at a distance of 5,000 light-years from Earth and measure roughly 130 light-years in diameter. The radiation from the young stars excites the atoms in the nebula, causing them to emit radiation themselves producing the emission nebula we see.

Equipment:
° Mount: Ioptron Cem40 with iPolar
° Main Imaging: ZWO ASI533MC Pro
° Filter: Optolong L-extreme 1.25″
° OTA: Skywatcher Esprit 100ED
° SW field flattener
° Guide Scope: ZWO mini guide scope 120mm
° Guide Camera: ZWO ASI-120MM-mini
° Stellarmate – Wireless Astrophotography Controller

Integration:
Lights: 30 x 300 seconds – gain 120
Darks: none
Flats: none
Bias: none

Total acquisition: 2 hours 30 minutes

Software:
Deep Sky Stacker
Siril
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Lightroom

It’s super interesting and he’s got other examples similar to this on his account as well. If you want to get into astrophotography or want to see more photos captured by Abdulmohsen, then make sure you check out his Instagram account @mi7sen89

I always wondered what came first, the mosque or the roundabout and I still can’t figure it out from these pictures. The top photo is from 1958, the bottom black and white one from 1965 and finally the last photo from 2020. What’s interesting between the 1958 and 1965 photo is the amount of old Kuwaiti homes that were demolished. Kinda sad.

via @alialsalim

Mark Lowey, or AbuJack as he is known on Twitter has been fairly active recently scanning old photos of his from life back in Kuwait and Saudi during the 70s and 80s when he used to live here. Recently he published one of his journal entries from a spur of the moment trip he made to Kuwait with his friend Stephen back in 1979. Along with his journal entry, he has old pictures of Kuwait attached so it’s a really interesting piece to read (basically a blog post from 1979).

Check out his journal entry on his weekend excursion to Kuwait here and then make sure you follow him on twitter @molowey

Recently I needed to get a hold of a macro lens for a project and a friend of mine told me about a place called DD Cameras. Turns out I had been to their store previously looking for used equipment but either didn’t know or had forgotten they also rented cameras, lenses and other photography equipment. So I sent them a Whatsapp message asking if they had a Sony mount macrolens available and turns out they did. The price? KD5 per day, KD14 for 3 days or KD20 for a week. Surprisingly, extremely reasonable. They didn’t have many requirements to rent it either, I basically had to be over 21, have a valid civil ID, and have a photography Instagram account. Basically, to keep random people from renting their gear and possibly damaging them or not returning them, they filter their customers by checking their Instagram account and making sure they qualify to rent them.

It’s an interesting approach and I managed to pass that test so no complaints from me. I ended up dropping by filling out a form and picking up the lens. Super easy process and payment is done when you return the lens which is convenient in case you wanted to keep the gear for longer than originally planned.

If you’re looking for a place to rent photography gear check them out, their Instagram is @ddrents and they’re located on the mezzanine floor of Daiya Coop.

Thanks Dalal

Just a quick post because I like the shop and want to support this small business. My favorite custom picture frame guy had to move his shop location due to the fact they’re demolishing his old building. He’s now still in the same area (Shuwaikh) but just a few blocks further down. If you want to get a custom photo frame he’s the guy I get most of my frames done at. He’s quick, he’s affordable and during this pandemic, he wears a mask properly. So check him out.

I won an eBay bid on some 35mm slides of Kuwait taken back in 1978 and thought I would share them. Most of the slides are of a motorcade but I’m not sure who was visiting.

There are UK flags up on the roads but it couldn’t be the Queen since she visited in 1979. I thought maybe the British Prime Minister back then, James Callaghan, but I also couldn’t find any info about him visiting Kuwait. So if anyone has any idea who this might be, let me know because I’m curious.

I’ve uploaded all the scans to Flickr and you can check them out here.

Architectural photographer Abdulraouf Murad visited the abandoned Entertainment City and captured some pretty cool photos including the one above showing nature taking over the park. The park has been closed since 2016 but I was there a couple of weeks back and there was construction working taking place in the parking area so maybe the renovation project is back on track.

Check out more photos of the park on his account here, here and here.

There is a book I’ve been wanting to post about since September, but I held myself back since I wanted to at least get a copy of the book for myself before I tell everyone about it. The book is called “Aftermath” and was originally published back in 1992 in French under the name “Fait” (which means fact) and a year later published in English. The book is by the French photographer Sophie Ristelhueber who came to Kuwait at the end of the Gulf War to document the traces of conflict. Her series of photographs were then published in her book as well as being exhibited in galleries and museums around the world include the TATE Modern Museum. In the short video below by TATE, Sophie discusses her photographs, her journey to Kuwait and why she captured what she captured.

SOPHIE RISTELHUEBER (French, b. 1949) traveled to Kuwait at the end of the Gulf War to record the physical traces of the conflict. Entitled Fait or Fact, the resulting series of photographs—aerial and ground-level, in color and black-and-white—depicts trenches and tank tracks, bomb craters, dense smoke rising from blazing oil wells, battle detritus scattered in the sand. Ristelhueber hangs the large prints in an expansive grid that at first reads as a beautiful abstract field, then reveals itself to be a reconstitution of the battlefield on the gallery wall. –MoMA

The book isn’t that difficult to come by if you’re willing to throw money at it. Right now there are three copies on AbeBooks but with prices ranging from KD150 to KD230, you might find them for slightly cheaper at around KD130 if you look around the web. Personally, I didn’t want to pay so much since I tend to buy a lot of old books and trust me, it adds up. So I waited and waited for the right copy until a few weeks ago a bookseller in Germany put an original French version up for sale for around KD90. I guess due to the current situation I was able to negotiate the price and bring it down to a much more reasonable KD50.

Unlike other books and photographers of the 1990 war, there is something beautiful in the way Sophie captures the scars. You really need to watch the video above to understand why she captured it the way she did but the end result is breathtaking.

The fact it’s the French version isn’t an issue since the book is filled with photos and just has one spread that actually has any text on it. If you have the chance to purchase it, I highly recommend you do. If you don’t want to spend so much for the original, there is a publisher called Errata that has published the book as part of their books on books series. It doesn’t come in the original form factor, but it does contain all the photos and is priced at just KD15. You can find more info on that here.

There are around 70 photos in total but if you’d like to see more then check out Sophie’s website here.

Update: Sorry video wasn’t embedded properly, just fixed it

A friend recently shared an instagram account with me that contained a lot of cool old photos of Kuwait, many which I hadn’t seen before. The account is called @badshaiji and the guy doesn’t mention the source of the photos, but I don’t think they’re his since I’ve seen a few in other places. I also think he converts a lot of colored photos to black and white for aesthetic reasons.

From all the photos on his account, three stuck out for me. The two above are from 1969 and of seaside casinos (basically coffee shops or social clubs not gambling casinos) that were located in Salmiya on Blajat street. I had never seen these before nor did I know they had existed. The third photo below is of a music shop on Fahad Al Salem street dated 1961. If you want to check out a lot more photos like this then check out the Instagram account @badshaiji

Over the weekend I got outbid on some Harvey Llyod slides of Kuwait dating back to 1979. They were being sold as part of an estate find and according to the seller, there were 180 film slides of Kuwait covering a wide range of subjects. I didn’t think anyone would be interested in them but I ended up getting outbid on them by someone I’m guessing is some kind of collector in Kuwait since their bidding history involves a lot of old Kuwait stamps.

So in case whoever won these slides reads my blog, can you please get in touch with me? I was planning to scan all the slides and share them here so maybe we can still do that.

Last year I posted about Alan Villiers, an Australian adventurer who came to Kuwait in the 1930s. Alan documented his experience with words and pictures and eventually published the book “Sons of Sindbad” as well as “Sons of Sindbad: The Photographs”.

Last week the Australian Embassy in collaboration with Dar Al-Athar Al-Islammiyah opened up a photo and film exhibition titled ‘Alan Villiers & the Sons of Sindbad: An Australian in 1930s Kuwait’. They even brought in Alan Villiers son to the opening and I ended up getting my 1st edition Sons of Sindbad book signed by him.

If you enjoy my posts on old Kuwait then you’re gonna really like this exhibition. There are a ton of great photos of Kuwait in the 1930s on display as well as videos. The exhibition is at the Amricani Cultural Center and is free of charge. For more info on the exhibition, click here.

If you still shoot with 35mm film then you know how difficult it is to find a place that can still develop film and how expensive it is. Previously I’ve recommended Ashkanani in Salmiya as an option but because of the cost of chemicals, they tend to wait until there are multiple film rolls and then batch develop them all together. This means the process could take a week or a month, you never know but they’re also expensive charging KD10+ per roll.

But, a few days ago I was at Souk Al Watiya behind Sheraton Hotel in the city and spotted a small store that still had a 35mm film development machine. The place charges KD2.5 to develop a roll and then 100fils per photo print. This means a roll of 36 shots would cost you around KD6. Not only is it cheaper than Ashkanani but they’ll also develop them quicker for you since they have no problem developing a single roll of film at a time.

If you’re looking for a place to develop film then this is a good alternative to Ashkanani. The store doesn’t have a name but it’s on the ground floor of Souk Al Watiya near one of the exits. Here is the location of the complex on Google Maps.

Not sure what I was searching for on eBay but I ended up finding a 35mm slide of Kuwait for sale taken back in 1961. My curiosity kicked in so I decided to see if there were more 35mm slides of Kuwait and ended up finding a few for sale and a whole lot that had previously sold. I saved all the ones I found, they’re 32 photos to be exact and I’ve shared them below.

All these photos were sold by the same person on eBay and they all date back to 1961. The interesting part is that all these slides were sold individually and each one had multiple bids on them. Some ended up selling for over KD40 (per slide) and some quick poking around made me realize most were purchased by the same person.

Whoever is buying up all these slides, email me!

Check out all the photos below, there are some great shots of Kuwait I hadn’t seen before.