Categories
50s to 90s Photography

Urban Kuwait: Raw & Unpolished – 1980

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.

4 replies on “Urban Kuwait: Raw & Unpolished – 1980”

That last photo has a surprisingly large amount of trees in it – making it look as if it was much greener back then.

While on their own, the shots are technically brilliant (again what do I know about these things), they fail to distil the core essence of how classy life used to be in Kuwait (1976- 1982). Guess, the Souk Al Manakh crisis was the apocalyptic water shed moment for all things bright and beautiful and elegant.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *