Country: United Arab Emirates
Collection Type: Press
Period: 1960-1980Later than 1980
Type of Material & Format: Black and White imagesColour imagesDigital filesPrints
Website: http://www.alittihad.ae

Al Ittihad was established in 1969 as the first (Arabic language) newspaper prior to the creation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 1971. It is part of Abu Dhabi Media group, a government organization which also includes Abu Dhabi TV and Radio.
Al Ittihad’s archive contains over thirty million images in the form of negatives and prints, as well as a growing number of digital images resulting from the shift to digital photography in 2003. Photographs were taken mostly by staff photographers and also acquired from other press sources; they relate to the UAE as well as global news coverage, with the earliest dating back to pre-unification days.
Al Ittihad’s archive is shared with The National newspaper, the English version launched in 2008, for stories about UAE history and heritage. The photographic archive of the National holds around 250,000 photos dating from the 1960s until the present day, and includes a small number of historic photographs of Al Ittihad.
The National newspaper runs a weekly series called Time Frame, which explores the story behind a historic photograph in the Al Ittihad archive and other collections (http://www.thenational.ae/arts-lifestyle/timeframe). In 2011 the paper produced a supplement for the 40th anniversary of the UAE, which included original photographic research and journalism.
Contact Details:
Name: Tareq Al-Ghoul
Email: [email protected]
Address: Mohammed Bin Khalifa Street (Khalifa Street) Al Ittihad, Abu Dhabi, Near Rosary School
Tel: +971 04 332 2221

Country: Lebanon
Collection Type: Press
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
Website: http://archives.annahar.com.lb/

One of the largest press publications in the Arab world, Annahar was established in 1933 and its photograph collection, which really began in 1937, expanded as the journal grew. It initially focused on the political and economic life of Lebanon and the Arab world, as well as globally, and today covers all topics including international news, culture and sports.

Three million photos were acquired by donation from staff or contract photographers or by purchase from other news agencies, around half of which have been scanned, digitized and indexed by Annahar’s Information Center. The archive is still expanding and is made available and accessible to researchers, students and the public at large through the online Annahar Archives & Information System program (ANAIS). The photographic archive has been used for publications, including history books, and exhibitions in Lebanon.

Contact Details:
Nabila Bitar, Collection representative
[email protected]
http://archives.annahar.com.lb
www.annahar.com
+961-1-963-788

Country: Lebanon
Collection Type: Press
Collection Size: > 50,000
Period: Later than 1980
Type of Material & Format: Black and White images Colour images Digital files Prints
Website: http://www.alhayat.com

Dar Al-Hayat Information Center has been created with the re-launch of the Lebanese newspaper Al-Hayat of 1946-1976 as a Pan Arab newspaper from London in October 1988. Based in Beirut, the center is currently a corporate unit that caters for Daralhayat publications (Alhayat international and its local editions, Laha Magazine and alWasat Magazine (ceased in 2004)).

The center’s photographs collection covers all Dar Al-Hayat publications interests and holds in its Beirut central archives over 270,000 photographs. All pictures have been archived either as born digital photos or as digital conversion from original prints and slides. A very limited photograph collection belongs to Alhayat of 1946, due to the fact that the old archives was destroyed by a fire in 1976 during the Lebanese civil war.

Database replication for internal access is made available in the 3 main geographical sites (London, Beirut and Riyadh).

Contact Details:
Name: Nada Itani
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +9611-987990 ext 405
Fax: +9611-983921

Country: Jordan
Collection Type: Press
Collection Size: > 50,000
Period: 1960-1980 Later than 1980
Type of Material & Format: Black and White images Colour images Digital files Film-based negatives Prints
Website: http://www.petra.gov.jo/Public/Main_english.aspx?lang=2&site_id=1

Established in 1969 as an independent body linked to the Ministry of Information, Petra News is the largest and oldest press agency in Jordan and the official news agency for the Kingdom. The photograph archive holds around 250,000 photographs, consisting of 50,000 images taken between the 1960s and the 1990s which have been digitized, and 20,000 digital photos taken since 1998. Items include film-based negatives, positives, Black and White and color prints in addition to digital files.

Petra’s more recent picture archive started in 1995, with photographs taken by staff photojournalists, and the archive continues to expand as images are added daily from journalistic news production.

The archive is used by most Jordanian newspapers, including Al-Ghad, Al-Rai, Al-Dustour, and Jordan Times. The collection is accessible for researchers by appointment.

Contact Details:
Name: Fayez Abadi, Director General; Majid Abu Khaled, Managing Editor photography and design; Rasamieh El Kobba, Director of Department
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Address: Jamal Abdel-Nasser Circle, Amman, Jordan / 6845 Code 11118, Amman, Jordan
Tel: +962 65609700

Country: Egypt
Collection Type: Press
Collection Size: < 1,000 Period: 1930-1960 1960-1980 Later than 1980 Type of Material & Format: Black and White images Colour images Website: http://www.almasryalyoum.com Masry Media Corporation was founded in 2003. When the institution was founded, it began to build a photograph archive, as an important part in a press institution, since they had no old photographs. Thus, they purchased old photographs from old institutions such Al-Ahram, which have the largest archive in Egypt and old photographs from professional former presidential photographers. They held several exhibitions generally for the photographs and published a photography book. The collection is available only for publishing in the newspaper, the website, and all publications. It is not open for the public, except for the researchers with permission from the institution. Contact Details: Name: Ahmed Al-Jamal Email: [email protected] Address: 49 Mobtadaian st. from Kasr al-Aini st., Downtown Cairo Tel: +2027980100 Other: http://www.egyptindependent.com

Country: Palestine
Collection Type: Press State agency/ Ministry
Collection Size: > 50,000
Period: 1930-1960 Later than 1980
Type of Material & Format: Black and White images Colour images Digital files Film-based negatives Prints
Website: http://english.wafa.ps

Wafa, the news agency of the Palestinian National Authority, provides daily news from Palestinian territories, Israel and the Middle East in English, Arabic, French and Hebrew. It was established in 1972 as the official news agency of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and now the Palestinian Authority. In 2008, a presidential decree made it a public agency.

WAFA’s photograph collection spans the PLO years in Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, the Occupied Territories, and the Palestinian National Authority. It includes around one million negatives, mostly Black and White until 1982, color negatives prior to the digital age and donations from 1948. Many are secured in Gaza while approximately 20,000 are stored in Ramallah.

The collection is partially catalogued and available online, and is accessible for researchers. It is archived with published news stories and is still expanding. It has resulted in daily news, publications, PLO posters and postcards.

Contact Details:
Name: Nawaf Hamed, Editor in Chief
Email: [email protected] ; [email protected]
Address: WAFA Palestine News & Info Agency
Mecca Building Center – Third Floor, Transmission Street, Ramallah, Palestine
Tel: +970 598926200 (Nawaf mobile)