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A joint international exhibition showcasing street photography from Bahrain, Iraq and Turkey is being hosted virtually by one of the kingdom’s leading photography groups, writes Naman Arora.
The Bahrain Photo Club (BPC), in collaboration with the Iraqi Society of Photography and the FSK-Photographic Art Society from Ankara, Turkey, launched the Streets of Home exhibition earlier this month, highlighting 43 photographs that capture the cultural, environmental and social features of Bahrain, Iraq and Turkey’s streets.
“The idea for this exhibition came about during the pandemic when BPC became the first in the region to come up with the idea for a programme called ‘Visual Art has no boundaries’ which the FSK-Photographic Art Society hosted in May last year, followed by the Iraqi Society of Photography in December last year,” explained BPC president Shaikha Hanan bint Hassan Al Khalifa.
The exhibition was attended by a number of dignitaries including Turkish ambassador Esin Çakıl, International Federation of Photographic Art (FIAP) president Riccardo Busi, Turkish Art Federation president Sefa Ulukan, Iraqi Society of Photography president Hadi Al-Najar and Ankara’s Photographic Art Society president Sami Turkay.
Hadi noted that the exhibition came at an opportune moment when ‘everyone misses a lot of street life, especially as they became empty and devoid of followers due to the pandemic’.
Photographs by 11 of Bahrain’s top photographers are part of the exhibition, depicting themes like social interaction, time, and ephemera through moments captured on the street.
Shaikha Hanan’s photograph, titled Formula 4, and captured with a Canon 1D Mark II highlights Bahrain’s love for four-wheeled sports in its alleyways as well as the relationship between a child and his elders.
Photographs of Bahrain’s streets by Sawsan Taher, Asma Murad, Hussain Fardan, Herz AlBanki, Jamal AlKhayyat, Tosin Arowojolu, Nader AlBazzaz, Mohammed AlHajer, Fadel Alshobaki and Sebahat Isik are also featured in the exhibition, which is available online now.
Captured with a Nikon D7000, Tosin’s Wisdom Sits Quietly taken at Bab Al Bahrain, distils a traditional flavour of the kingdom, with the photographer adding: “I took this gentleman’s photograph because, to me, he represented wisdom and culture in the way he was sitting comfortably in his thobe with the bicycle behind him.”
Hussain ventured out to the Malkiya village during Ashoora, with his Canon camera, and snapped, Cooking, a shot of a Bahraini woman cooking a meal using traditional method using palm leaves.
Sawsan’s Café on the Road poses an implicit question to the viewer about how things have changed. “Men used to gather in cafe to drink tea and talk in person with friends,” the photographer, who used a Nikon D750, added. “However, nowadays, the conversation is through mobile phones and friends in the café are often forgotten.”
To check out the exhibition, visit https://bahrainphotoclub.net/
