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Kuwait Personal

Update on the old photographer

First of all I would like to thank everyone for their support. Other than the tons of comments offering assistance I got a lot of emails and calls offering to help the old guy out. Regarding his residency that’s been sorted out. He’s just been running around a lot trying to get it done and as an 80 year old traveling by bus from location to location it can be extremely exhausting in this weather.

I passed by him tonight to get a better idea on how we can help him out and I honestly still don’t know what we can do. The only service his shop currently offers is photocopies for 100 fils. I was there for 2 hours tonight and only 1 person came in to get a photocopy done so that’s not really a source of income. There are two things he seems to be bothered about, one is the fact that he doesn’t have a store sign. The second is the fact he bought a small Minolta DiMAGE X1 for like KD10 from this lady who was traveling and he can’t get it to work. It took me a few seconds to figure out the battery needed charging and she hadn’t given him a charger with it so that’s why it wasn’t working. I need to find a battery charger for it and then teach him how to use it. He doesn’t have a computer so not sure what he is planning to do. Oh and I also brought along my laptop with me and introduced him to the internet. It was pretty weird trying to explain how the internet works and helping him pronounce Google which he kept calling Googen.

Anyway I’m going back again on Wednesday, I told him to think about what he needs or what would help him out and he promised to think about it and get back to me on it. While there he insisted on inviting me to a cold drink which was an RC Lemonade which I thought was pretty old school. I’ll make sure to keep everyone posted if there is anything we can do but for now I think everything should be ok.

32 replies on “Update on the old photographer”

I am going to talk to our production manager at work and see how we can get one done. Shouldn’t be too difficult. I’ll work on the signage graphic myself maybe design something retro and put “Since 19XX” so that people walking by realize this place has been there for like 40 years.

I think it’s pretty nice of you to keep helping this guy . It’s a really unforunate , sad and touching story , I’ve read the original post and hope Allah can help him . But the RC lemonade seems pretty badass 😀

Hi Mark,
I am touched by the circumstances this man has gone through and by your kindness by bringing attention to his issues via your blog. I would like to help but I live abroad. Have you considered placing a paypal donation fund on your blog? I would be happy to donate a little to help this man. I don’t know how much difference it will make but others may pitch in too.
Wishing him the best of luck.

I’m curious, how his residency issues were resolved so easily?

As a third world national, these issues usually haunt us endlessly.

Perhaps a way to keep his spirits up and bring in income would be if we could help him start a Photography class! He can talk about the History of cameras (with live samples), teach youngsters lighting, aperture etc. and maybe specialize in film cameras. All this can be done in his shop, what say ppl?

Saba:

I like your idea, but maybe a better way would be to have him visit some of the schools and give a seminar on Kuwait history with his unique insight + pictures.

That would be something even I would attend – just to see the pictures. Plus it would get him out and about to see Kuwait.

how about an interactive blog. SInce the guy can’t type, maybe daily video clips of him saying what ever he says and that includes: advice, wisdom, experiences, memories or anything else.

I personaly believe that old people hold a wealth of knowledge and have an interesting perspective on life.

Talking about an income of 100Fils a day !!!
How is he paying the Rent of his shop ? assuming that he does not own it !

He makes income from 2 places. He’s rented the shop next door out and the amount they pay him covers the rent of that shop plus a bit extra. He also rented out his flat and makes a bit extra from that as well. The profit from the two covers the rent of his photography shop plus KD2 a day for his employee. He told me he also ends up with around KD2 a day for himself as well. Basically his shop costs KD10 a day to run. KD6 for rent and KD2 for his employee and KD2 for him and the shop (supplies).

I just realized something else he might need. Cat food. He told me he bought 4 cans of tuna for the cats (not his cats they are street cats who hang out with him) but they didn’t like the tuna. So note to self.. need to take cat food with me next time.

Do an auction in the forums on his photos, I am sure they are old enough to make people who want to help him pay like 10 to 20 KD per photo.
selling 20 to 30 photos (B&W) would get him some decent money i bet.

Another idea would be to make a limited edition photo book of his work and print like 200 copies for 30 KD each.

I am the first customer for both. I am sure we will get more readers and we can’t find better than mark to pick good photos and make them a book.

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