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: [email protected]
Address: (Near Isa Town Health Center) Villa 1539, Road 1637 Area 816
Tel: +973 17623071

Country: Tunisia
Collection Type: Private collection
Collection Size: 10,000-50,000
Period: 1860-1900 1900-1930 1930-1960 1960-1980
Type of Material & Format: Black and White images Film-based negatives Glass plates positives and/or negatives Prints
Beit el Bennani’s main aim is to safeguard the cultural heritage of Tunisia, its manuscripts and photographs.

The collection began in 1997 following the visit of a lady carrying her father’s, Mohamed el Bennani’s archive documenting Tunisia. Mohamed el Bennani, initially collected books and engravings and developed a growing interest for photography. 90% of the collection documents the history of Tunisia, and goes back to the years 1878-1957 (prior to the country’s independence). The collection includes glass-plates, and original material from international photographers such as Guarriges (1881), Albert a Bizerte (1895) and Lehnert and Landrock (1909). It also includes photographs from local tunisian photographers such as the private collection of Mostafa Bouchoucha (8,000 negatives dating 1932-1967) deposited by his daughter, and some photograph collection from the archive of the Tunisian National Library.

The entire collection is entirely digitized and catalogued by theme and name of photographer.

Contact Details:
Name: Mohammed Bennani, Owner
Email: [email protected]
Address: 11 bis, boulevard Bab Menara, Tunis 1008. Tunisie
Tel: Fixe : 00216 71 564546 Mobile : 00216 98 243799

Other:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Beit-el-Bennani-520104428117976/

Digital library for International Research: http://www.dlir.org/about-bouchoucha.html

Country: Iran
Collection Type: Cultural organisation Private collection
Collection Size: > 50,000
Period: 1860-1900 1900-1930 1930-1960 1960-1980 Later than 1980
Type of Material & Format: Glass plates positives and/or negatives Slides (positives)

The Cultural Research Bureau includes the Photo and Pictorial Studies department, which was established around 1996 in order to provide photographs for the institution’s various projects and publications. The activities of this division are divided into research related to general theory and publication of books and quarterly magazines. Some of the departments are focused on history & culture, architecture & culture, photography & culture, philosophy & culture, economy & culture. The Cultural Research Bureau have published a series of books called ‘What do I know about Iran?’ which includes 124 titles.

The collection contains around 50,000 images including glass plates, negatives and positives (slides) and is stored off-site.

Contact Details:
Name: Rana Javadi
Email: [email protected]

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: [email protected]
Address: SALT/ Garanti Platform, Taksim. Istiklal Cad. Garanti Han. No: 115A Istiklal Cad. Garanti Han. No: 115A, Istanbul, Turkey
Tel: +905358257331

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: [email protected] / [email protected]
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: Iran
Collection Type: Private collection
Collection Size: > 50,000
Period: 1860-1900 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.datkam.com

The Kamran Najafzadeh private collection was initiated in 1996 to preserve photographs and documents from Iran, while making them accessible for researchers and students. The collection holds more than 150,000 images dating from the 1860s to the present day and covers Qajar Era photography, as well as images of Berlin, and Arab and European photographers. The collection consists of glass-plate negatives and positives, film-based negatives, slides, black and white and color prints, in addition to particular techniques such as cyanotypes. Other materials include postcards, photography books, scanned images from magazines and newspapers, and photography-related objects.

The collection has been featured in publications and various exhibitions in Iran. it is accessible for students and researchers and is partly available on the website and Facebook page.

Contact Details:
Name: Kamran Najafzadeh
Email: [email protected] ; [email protected]
Address: No: 4, Saba Alley, Lomomba Street, Satarkhan Street, Tehran, Iran
Tel: +98 912 3848019

Country: Iraq
Collection Type: 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 Glass plates positives and/or negatives Prints

Researcher, Photographer and Collector Kifah Al Amin aims for the preservation of photographs related to Iraq and the establishment of an Iraqi Photography Museum.
He started collecting in the 1980s. His photograph collection ranges from the 1895 to today and is still actively growing. Noted Iraqi photographers in his collection include Halim al Khattat, Emri Selim and Muhi Aref. He has published several volumes on the photographic history of Baghdad containing around 3000 images, from his personal collection.

Contact Details:
Name: Kifah al Amin
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +964 (0)770-4425 400

Country: Tunisia
Collection Type: Cultural organisation Private collection
Collection Size: 1,000-10,000
Period: 1930-1960 1960-1980 Later than 1980
Type of Material & Format: Black and White images Colour images Digital files Film-based negatives Slides (positives)
Website: http://maisonimage.tn/

The photograph collection of ‘Maison de l’image’ was created in 2011, and primarily consists of photographs related to “L’École de Tunis”. The archive contains around 3,500 images and includes film-based negatives, positives, Black and White and color images, in addition to digital files. Photos were acquired by deposit and the collection is still expanding. The collection is partially catalogued on a database, which is accessible for researchers and students interested in Tunisian Art History.

Contact Details:
Name: Wassim Ghozlani
Email: [email protected]
Address: 40 Rue Tarak Ibn Zied 1086 Mutuelleville, Tunis, Tunisie
Tel: +216 23 475 705 ; +216 71 840 536m

Other:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maisonimagetn