Yesterday I found out about Charles Cecil, an American diplomat who served in Kuwait back in the 60s. While here he took some great photos of Kuwait including the images in this post of Kuwaiti homes that were newly constructed at that time.
I’m not sure how many are still standing today, I think I recognize 2 but they’ve had their colors changed. You can check out more photos taken by Cecil on his website cecilimages.com.
16 replies on “Kuwaiti Houses in the 1960s”
Amazing houses and amazing photos.
I wish I knew where these house are now so I can do before after versions of each. That would be awesome!
They’re beautiful. So colorful. Although houses like these would have very polarizing opinions, they are definitely unique. After looking at these, it feels like the designs these days for the most part have become somewhat bland and repetitive. This was refreshing to look at. Thank you for sharing them.
Back then, houses had character, they had distinctive features that made them stand out. Houses today all look the same.
Yep. Nowadays, most houses here look like people say, “I’d like a beige rectangular block house.” I love the styles above with the wraparound balconies!
Art Deco
Actually mid-century.
The question is: do you think they aged well?
Some most definitely while others have not
Wow, those houses look so amazing! They all look so vibrant and unique
How where they able to take such a colorful pictures back then? Nowadays pictures look very different – even brightest colors are not that bright.
I know they had some simple chemicals instead of digital processing but even my tech marvel iphone with its super duper camera won’t snap anything similar to above.
I mean I see the world exactly like on above pictures, but my camera tends to filter brightest spots and pinch in a bit of grayness.
probably 35mm slide film
I think they used to sell different kinds of films back then and the most colorful ones are not produce/expired by now + old school photographers had some magic spells that are lost as well:) I compared my 35 mm shots from 90s and they have less “grain” that makes them look too sharp and regular, while above images look almost like paintings. Would be really cool to bring it all back and see how modern world will be captured by 60s cameras.
Grain depends on the iso, the Fuji Velvia slide film I used to use for example was iso 50 so no grain and the colors were saturated.
the first one is my dad’s childhood house
Oh no way! Is it still standing or was it replaced?
the first house belonged to my grandfather, they lived there for some time and then rented it out to the German embassy. it was sold after my grandfather passed away.