Country: Bahrain
Collection Type: Private collection
Collection Size: > 50,000
Period: 1960-1980Later than 1980
Type of Material & Format: Black and White imagesColour imagesDigital filesFilm-based negatives
Website: http://www.bahrainhouse.com/

The photo archive of Bahrain House of Photography, a business owned by photographer Abdulla Mohammed Al Khan, comprises three archives: The archive of his father, photographer Mohammed Al Khan (that includes photographs dating back to 1939), part of the archive of the Bahrain Petroleum Company BAPCO (founded in 1929) and his personal archive since 1950.

Abdulla Mohammed Al Khan father, “Mohammed Al Khan” studied photography in India. After his return from India in 1938 he set up a photography studio at his home in Muharraq, from which he managed his business in developing photo negatives and making prints of them. Abdulla Al Khan joined Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) as a trainee photographer. Because of his noticeable skills and performance, BAPCO sent him on a scholarship to “Ealing Technical College’, London to study photography. His specialty was the photography of installations, structures and buildings. He returned to Bahrain and continued to work for BAPCO to become head of the photography department at the company and the officer-in-charge of its photo archive. He left BAPCO in 1971 to establish his “Falcon Cinefoto” business which has become the biggest photography firm in the Gulf. In 2006, Abdulla Al Khan founded the “Bahrain House of Photography” through which he continued his career in photography and converted for the first time to using to digital photography rather the traditional films and negatives.

In 2007, Al Khan produced his first documentary book under the title “Muharraq, The Sea Rose” which contained photographs of this city that he personally shot from 1945 to 2007. In 2009, he produced his second documentary book “Democracy 73 – Experience of the People” and in 2011, he published “The Book of Pearls”. In 2013, Abdulla Al Khan published the book “Lexicon of the Eye” and in 2015 his book “Dates and Sea”. The texts of all these books were researched and authored by the writer and photographer Hussain Al Mahroos.

Abdulla Al Khan has documented numerous scenes of political, economic, social and religious life in Bahrain, the Gulf, the Arab world and India. His archive now contains more than two million printed photographs, negatives and slides.

The collection is available to researchers.

Contact Details:
Name: Hussain Mahroos
Email: hmahroos@gmail.com
Address: (Near Isa Town Health Center) Villa 1539, Road 1637 Area 816
Tel: +973 17623071

Country: Bahrain
Collection Type: 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 Prints
Website: www.bapco.net
Finding Aid: website
Established in 1929, Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) was the first company to have a camera in the country. Thus, BAPCO hold an archive of over 20,000 photographs (negatives and contact sheets) and films dating back to the 1930s covering all the fields of public life in Bahrain.

Contact Details:
Name: Reem Ebrahim, Collection representative
Email: reem_ebrahim@bapco.net ;

pr_department@bapco.net
Address: +974 17757677
Tel: PO Box 25555, Awali, Kingdom of Bahrain

Other:
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bapcopage/albums/with/72157626942467753
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dExXIu5TgBw ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h77r20HwHc

Country: Bahrain
Collection Type: Foundation or Association Private collection
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 Prints
Website: http://www.ksdibahrain.com

In the late 1950s, the Bahrain Petroleum Company provided training to two Bahraini photographers in the United Kingdom, Khalifa Shaheen and Abdullah Mohamed al-Khan. In 1971, both individuals founded Studio Falcon Cinefoto in Bahrain, a studio for photography and cinema. They produced photographs for almost 50 years together until they split in 2006.

This led them to creating two competing studios. Khalifa Shaheen and his son created Khalifa Shaheen Digital Images while Abdullah Mohammed al-Khan created Bahrain House of Photography. Al- Khan took the original photographs and the negatives while Khalifa Shaheen took digital copies and the right to use them. Both photographers claim having a million pictures.

Khalifa Shaheen Digital Images (KSDi) collection covers all the fields of Bahrain life with a special attention paid to technological innovations and transports such as airports, aircrafts and related inaugurations since the 1930s. They sell digital print and provide editorial services, as well as digitization services to private institutions. They have digitized the American Mission Hospital’s photographic archive.

Contact Details:
Name: Nader Khalifa Shaheen
Email: nader@ksdibahrain.com
Address: PO. Box 31425, Manama, Bahrain
Tel: +973 17593993