Country: Iran
Collection Type: Research center
Collection Size: > 50,000
Period: 1860-1900 1960-1980
Type of Material & Format: Black and White images Colour images Film-based negatives Glass plates positives and/or negatives Prints
Website: http://iichs.org/index_en.asp

The Institute for Cultural Research and Studies was founded in 1986 with a mandate to maintain, organize and catalogue valuable historical documents acquired during and after the Islamic Revolution in Iran. In 1996, it was replaced by the Institute for Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies (IICHS), a professional research center devoted to the study of contemporary Iranian history. Its objective is to undertake various research projects regarding social, political, economic and cultural aspects of post-eighteenth-century Iran, using its collection of primary sources.

The institute’s archive consists of public and private collections, memoirs of prominent individuals in various languages, historical slides, films and official decorations belonging to the Qajar and Pahlavi Dynasties as well as tens of thousands of photographs of Iranian and foreign dignitaries, events and buildings.

IICHS has a rich library, which, in addition to many old memoirs, travel accounts, journals and reports in various languages, holds many old and valuable manuscripts and lithographs dating back to the fourteenth century. The Institute has expanded its international academic ties, allowing exchange of documents between various scholars in this field. It also organizes lectures and conferences, commissions translations of significant scholarly works, and publishes research books and a quarterly journal, Iranian Contemporary History (Tarikh-e-Moaser-e-Iran). Its publications include The Revolution in Khurasan, The Historical Events Relating to Baning the Veil, and Mudarris and the Parliament.

The collection is partially catalogued on a database and is made available to researchers.

Contact Details: Name: Zohreh Moradkhany
Email: zo2mo@yahoo.com
Address: P.O.box.19395-1975, Tehran, Iran
Tel: +98 21 2260403738

Country: Tunisia
Collection Type: Cultural organisation State agency/ Ministry
Collection Size: 10,000-50,000
Period: 1930-1960 1960-1980 Later than 1980
Type of Material & Format: Black and White images Colour images Digital files Film-based negatives Glass plates positives and/or negatives Prints
Website: http://www.inp.rnrt.tn/

The National Heritage Institute (INP) is a public administrative institution under the Ministry of Culture, responsible for establishing the inventory and study of cultural heritage, archeological, historical, civilizational and artistic artifacts.
The photograph library was created in 1984 and holds around 110,000 photographs, in the form of film-based negatives, positives, some 11,000 glass plates, Black & White and color images. The INP includes photograph collections from various museums in Tunisia such as Musée de Carthage and Musée de Bardo. Moreover, it also includes the Tunis Medina archives, the collection of the White Fathers missionaries, and images from historical and archeological sites in Tunisia. The archive has grown with contributions from INP photographers, such as Benassir, Khalifa, Rida or Selmi, and photographs have been mostly acquired on the occasion of exhibitions. The collection is available through an electronic database and accessible upon request for researchers, historians, archeologists, and INP employees.

Contact Details: Name: Mohamed Ali Ben Hassine, Collection representative
Email: malika.dali@yahoo.fr
Address: Rue Sophonisbe, Carthage Hannibal – 2016 Carthage (Tunis)
Tel: +216 22 946 326

Country: Egypt
Collection Type: Research center
Collection Size: > 50,000
Period: 1900-1930 1930-1960 1960-1980 Later than 1980
Type of Material & Format: Black and White images Colour images Digital files Film-based negatives Glass plates positives and/or negatives Prints Slides (positives)
Website: http://www.ifao.egnet.net
The French Institute for Oriental Archaeology (IFAO) in Cairo is one of the major French research centers abroad and falls under the aegis of the Ministry of Education (National, Higher and Research).
The institute’s mission is to study the successive civilizations of Egypt from prehistory until the modern era. The disciplines involved are archaeology, history, and language studies. The excavation sites of the IFAO cover all eras (prehistory, Pharaonic Egypt, antiquity, the Islamic period) and they are situated throughout Egypt (Nile valley, Delta, oases, Eastern and Western Desert, Sinai and the Red Sea).
The library includes roughly 90,000 volumes specialized in the fields of Egyptology, papyrology, Classical, Byzantine, Coptic and Arabic studies and a archive holding the photographic and scientific records of all the Institute’s excavations since 1971, as well as certain from before that year, plus a map library of some 3000 items belonging to 80 different series.
The photograph collection includes more than 300,000 photographs, consisting of 20,000 glass-plates, 100,000 silver negatives, 50,000 slides, some albums and contact sheets.
The library is accessible to the public but the photographic collection is not accessible.

Contact Details: Name: Philippe Chevrant (Head librarian) and Nadine Cherpion (Archival conservator)
Email: bibliotheque@ifao.egnet.net, archives@ifao.egnet.net , ncherpion@ifao.egnet.net
Address: 37, rue al-Cheikh Ali Youssef B.P. 11562 Qasr al-Aïny 11441 Le Caire – Égypte
Tel: + 20 22 79 71 600

Country: Iran
Collection Type: Museum State agency/ Ministry
Collection Size: > 50,000
Period: 1860-1900 1900-1930
Type of Material & Format: Black and White images Film-based negatives Glass plates positives and/or negatives Prints
Website: http://www.golestanpalace.ir

The Golestan Palace is the oldest monument in Tehran. It belongs to a group of royal buildings that were once enclosed within the mud-thatched walls of Tehran’s Historic Arg (citadel). The Arg was built during the reign of Tahmasb I (1524-1576) of the Safavid dynasty (1502-1736). Agha Mohamad Khan Qajar (1742-1797) chose Tehran as his capital and the Arg became the site of the Qajar Court (1794-1925). The Golestan Palace became the official residence of the royal family. During the Pahlavi era (1925-1979), the Golestan Palace was used for formal royal receptions. In its present state, the Golestan Palace is the result of roughly 400 years of construction and renovations.

The museum’s archival holdings are comprised of photographs, paintings, and manuscripts from the late Qajar era, and in particular, the period of Nasser al-Din Shah’s reign (1848-1896), as well as a small library. Naser Al-Din Shah (1831-1896) became interested in photography soon after its invention, publishing essays on photographic processes, as did his successor Mozfar Al-Din Shah. As a result, students were often sent to Europe and eventually became teachers in Dar Al-Funun.

The Golestan palace houses around 48,000 photographs, the oldest dating from 1840. The collection is organized according to albums which were made by the Qajar court, and often, by Nasser al-Din Shah himself. The collection, which is partly digitized (around 6,000 images as of 2015), includes approximately 1,000 slides, 1,039 albums and 9,000 glass negatives. The photographs are of various processes and sizes, and were taken in Iran and other countries in Europe, Asia and Africa (e.g. Turkey, Iraq, Egypt, Japan, Russia, Georgia, France, Switzerland, Morocco, India, and Italy). The holdings also include a collection of nitrate films from the early years of Iranian Cinema.

The collection is often referenced in books, articles, postcards, exhibitions, and academic research. Important publications include: Tehran features; Golestan Palace; Like Mirror. The collection is in part accessible to Researchers upon request.

Contact Details: Name: Akram Alibabaei
Email: shahsavan_teh@yahoo.com
Address: Tehran, Panzdaeh Khordad, Arq Suquare, Golestan Palace
Tel: (+98) 021 33113335

Other:
Dissertation reviews: http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/10352

Country: Yemen
Collection Type: Private collection
Collection Size: 10,000-50,000
Period: 1960-1980 Later than 1980
Type of Material & Format: Black and White images Colour images Digital files Film-based negatives
Website: www.gabreez.com

Abdulrahman Al-Ghabiri was born in 1968, and has worked as a photographer in Yemen for over 40 years. His photographic themes include fields and orchards surrounding Otama district in Dhamar where he grew up, as well as landscapes and people (among his most famous photographs is an image of a Sana’ani woman in an orchard). Al-Ghabiri first learnt how to develop and print film with his mentor, Khalid Al-Sakkaf. He has documented Yemen’s historical events such as the 70-day siege of Sana’a, when he was a soldier in the popular defense, and the 1979 war between the North and South in which he took part in and was injured.

Al-Ghabiri established his own studio, Gabreez, in 2008, and the collection is family-managed, with four of his five children working in photography and film

Contact Details: Name: Mr. Abdulrahman Alghabri
Email: zeriab@gabreez.com / shatha.alghabri@gmail.com
Address: Sanaa 60 Meter Street (Al Siteen Street)
Tel: + 967771205151

Other:
Articles: http://www.yementimes.com/en/1699/news/2703
http://afrahnasser.blogspot.com/2011/01/yemen-is-full-with-undiscovered-beauty.html
“Images of the past / Renowned Yemeni photographer documents country’s history”, by Samar Qaed, Yemen Times, published on 1 August 2013.

Country: Turkey
Collection Type: Private collection
Collection Size: > 50,000
Period: 1930-1960 1960-1980 Later than 1980
Type of Material & Format: Glass plates positives and/or negatives
Website: http://tayfunserttas.com/works/foto_galatasaray.html

The Foto Galatasaray project is based on the re-visualization of the complete professional archive of Maryam Şahinyan (Sivas, 1911 – İstanbul, 1996), who worked as a photographer at her studio in Galatasaray, Beyoğlu from 1935 until 1985.

The archive is a unique inventory of the demographic transformations occurring on the socio-cultural map of İstanbul after the declaration of the Republic and the historical period it witnessed; it is also a chronological record of a female İstanbulite studio photographer’s professional career. Armed with the wooden bellows camera her father originally took over from a family that immigrated from the Balkans in the aftermath of the First World War and the black-and-white sheet film she continued to use until 1985, Şahinyan, in a sense, arrested time – both against the technological advancements photography was experiencing and contemporary trends. In the end, she created an unparalleled visual coherence without compromising her technical and aesthetic principles.

The collection consists entirely of black-and-white and glass negatives. The physical archive of Foto Galatasaray is a rare surviving example of the classical photography studios of İstanbul’s recent past.

Approximately 200,000 negatives in the archive were sorted, cleaned, digitized, digitally restored, categorized by a team under the direction of artist/researcher Tayfun Serttaş.

Contact Details: Name: Tayfun Serttas
Email: tayfun.serttas@gmail.com
Address: SALT/ Garanti Platform, Taksim. Istiklal Cad. Garanti Han. No: 115A Istiklal Cad. Garanti Han. No: 115A, Istanbul, Turkey
Tel: +905358257331

Country: Egypt
Collection Type: Library State agency/ Ministry
Collection Size: 1,000-10,000
Period: 1860-1900 1900-1930 1930-1960
Type of Material & Format: Film-based negatives Glass plates positives and/or negatives Prints
Website: http://www.mwri.gov.eg/

The Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation manages the water resource projects at the state level and monitors all water resources in Egypt.The Ministry (first in Egypt) dates to 1836, and holds a collection dating from the 19th century up to at least 1960s documenting the ministry’s projects.

The collection consists of approximately 360 albums, 24 albums of aerial surveys, together comprising 84 specific collections, and more than 2000 photographs. It also includes a small collection from Saad Zaghloul.

It is open to the public upon permission

Contact Details: Name: Saber Ahmed Saber / Shaimaa Sobhy Ibrahim (Information Specialist)
Email: saber_masx@yahoo.com, Libr@mwri.gov.eg, shaimaa_si@yahoo.com
Address: NWRC, Fum Ismailia Canal, PO BOX 74 Shoubra El-Kheima, 13411, Cairo, Egypt
Tel: (202) 4218-9535, 4218-8250

Other: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/تراث-وتاريخ-الري-فى-مصر-MWRI-Central-Library-1516235405280906/?pnref=story

Country: Morocco
Collection Type: University
Collection Size: > 50,000
Period: 1900-1930 1930-1960 1960-1980 Later than 1980
Type of Material & Format: Black and White images Colour images Digital files Film-based negatives Glass plates positives and/or negatives Prints Slides (positives)
Website: http://www.ena.archi.ac.ma/fr/index.php/rh/phototheque

The photographic holdings of the Ecole Nationale d’Architecture (ENA), Morocco’s architecture school established in 1981, retrace Morocco’s twentieth century architectural heritage, and aim to contribute to a better knowledge and understanding of it. The collection comprises mainly around 80,114 black and white negatives, with most existing in print form, as well as 6,000 black and white and colour slides.

The holdings used to belong to the Ministry of Habitat, which was a tutelage minister under the French protectorate, and date back to the 1940s, at the creation of the Ministry. The ENA recovered the photographs around 2008 and has added to the archive by gathering photographs related to habitat, housing, architecture, urban planning, monuments and heritage.

The collection constitutes an important resource for researchers and specialists in the fields of architecture, urbanism and cultural heritage; it is partially catalogued and available to students, architects, researchers and journalists. Around 2,000 photos have been digitized.

The photographs have been used in several exhibitions, including some in the framework of Euromed Heritage and others inside and outside of Morocco. A project is underway to re-publish and complete the series Repères de la Mémoire, a collection of photographic books on ten Moroccan cities.

Contact Details: Name:Touriya Elazri Ennassiri
Email:touriya2@gmail.com; elazri@archi.ac.ma
Tel: + 212 537678475
Address: B.P. 6372 Avenue Allal Al Fassi Madinat Al Irfane Rabat-Instituts, Maroc
http://www.ena.archi.ac.ma/fr/