Inside Sajja | A Labor of Light at Gulf Photo Plus

© Roshan Ali

Inside Sajja | A Labor of Light is a photography exhibition currently running at Gulf Photo Plus. It's quite a special exhibition that was a result of a collaboration between Gulf Photo Plus and Adopt-a-Camp, a non-profit organization that provides everything from basic necessities to emotional support and encouragement to migrant workers across the United Arab Emirates who are broke, stranded, living in poor conditions.

Karen Dias, a documentary photographer became aware of a group of abandoned migrant workers at a labour camp called Sajja in Sharjah through Adopt-a-Camp. She proposed to share her photography skills with these men, through donated cameras and photography workshops.

This resulted into a photography series taken by the men, from posed snapshots to compelling story-telling images of their everyday lives at the camp.

Karen Dias wanted to share these images with the public, hence the exhibition. Her aim is to generate income for the men in Sajja. The photos displayed at the exhibition are available for sale (AED 400 for the 57x38 cm prints and AED 20 for the postcard-sized prints also available for 20 AED). All proceeds from the print sales will be distributed directly and evenly to the workers involved in the project.

I went on the opening night and was really impressed with the photos. Some very honest work and you can see how proud the men were with their work. I hope they get to continue enjoying photography and expressing themselves through their photos.

I strongly recommend you go to this exhibition before it ends on 29th February. 

© Sonnat Ali

© Roshan Ali

© Kosar Miah

Event details
Exhibition is on till 29th February, 10am to 7pm Sunday - Thursday; 10am to 6pm on Saturdays
Venue: Gulf Photo Plus, Alserkal Avenue, Unit D36, Street 8, Al Quoz 1, Dubai (location map)

www.gulfphotoplus.com 
www.karendiasphotography.com
www.openeyestobeginjourney.tumblr.com
Adopt-a-Camp on Facebook 

Slidefest VI - 8th February 2012

© Nikolai Kozak

Slidefest is back after a long break with its 6th edition on Wednesday 8th February with a line up of interesting photographers. If you are not familiar with Slidefest, it's an event organised by Gulf Photo Plus where photographers present their personal projects in a variety of genres that can range from documentary projects to fine art, still-life and landscape images. The event also aims to bring photographers (amateurs and pros) and people from the photography community together where people can network, connect and share stories.

Here's the line up of presenters:

Ammar Al Attar

© Ammar Al Attar  Shooting in his home country here in the UAE, Al Attar's series titled Spare Parts focuses on scrap yards full of countless automotive parts.  Stacked skye high, the abundance of items speaks of the exaggerated the auto industry and also the people who work within it.  www.ammaralattar.com

Arezu

© Arezu

Arezu's work, titled Trespassing is rooted in concepts of obscurity and ambiguity.  Vague portraits represent a desire to be, but not seeking to be seen or to be paid attention to.  The crow in her work expresses her fascination with the freedom of flying and anonymity. www.arezuk.com

Mansoor Bhatti and Noush Like Sploosh

© Mansoor Bhatti and Noush Like Sploosh

Presenting a collaborative project, Bhatti and Noush will describe their photographic approach to the stop motion video for song 3 Act Circus by Noush Like Sploosh.  The music video which was released in March of last year was accepted later that year into the Gulf Film Festival.  www.facebook.com/noushlikesploosh

Lee Hoagland
© Lee Hoagland

This body of work examines the life of undocumented immigrants living in an abandoned factory in Paris. Immigration is a massive issue in Europe, and particularly in France, where many believe it has reached a stalemate. www.leehoagland.com



Nikolai Kozak

© Nikolai Kozak

Kozak will present a a study of Umm Al Quwain titled Forgotten. In black and white, the photos depict daily life in the emirate introducing fundamental social forces at play on a local, and daily, level.   Recent founder of NYUAD Photographic Society. www.nikolaikozak.com

Shahid Mohammed

© Shahid Mohammed

Where the majority us find ourselves locked into the link of modern technology, Mehrab lives his life at the other end of the spectrum. Mohammed's photographic story describes one man's life in the middle of desert; a camel caretaker living in a date palm hut. www.strandedsymphonies.photoshelter.com



Golnaz Olya

© Golnaz Olya

Originally form Iran, Olya began shooting Parkour roughly four years ago. Capturing her subjects flying through mid-air amidst an urban Tehran landscape, Olya depicts a perspective of Iran not so commonly portrayed. www.golnazolya.com

Silvia Razgova

© Silvia Razgova

Defining the last fifty odd years have been a generation know as the baby-boomers.  Now reaching retirement and beyond, the "boomers" now redefine death much like they have redefined the culture they lived within. Razgova's presents her series Death Boom in her own photo-journalist approach. www.silviarazgova.com





Event details:
Date: Wednesday, 8th February at 7pm
Location: Knowledge Village Auditorium, Dubai (location map)
Free entry

www.gulfphotoplus.com

Film Screening - Manufactured Landscapes

Gulf Photo Plus is launching a new movie night that will focus on films inspired by photography.  For the launch night on Tuesday, 29th November, they will screen Manufactured Landscapes by Jennifer Baichwal.

Manufactured Landscapes is a feature length documentary on the world and work of renowned artist Edward Burtynsky. Burtynsky makes large-scale photographs of ‘manufactured landscapes’ – quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines, dams. He photographs civilization’s materials and debris, but in a way people describe as “stunning” or “beautiful,” and so raises all kinds of questions about ethics and aesthetics without trying to easily answer them.

The film follows Burtynsky to China as he travels the country photographing the evidence and effects of that country’s massive industrial revolution. Sites such as the Three Gorges Dam, which is bigger by 50% than any other dam in the world and displaced over a million people, factory floors over a kilometre long, and the breathtaking scale of Shanghai’s urban renewal are subjects for his lens and our motion picture camera.

Shot in Super-16mm film, Manufactured Landscapes extends the narrative streams of Burtynsky’s photographs, allowing us to meditate on our profound impact on the planet and witness both the epicentres of industrial endeavour and the dumping grounds of its waste. What makes the photographs so powerful is his refusal in them to be didactic. We are all implicated here, they tell us: there are no easy answers. The film continues this approach of presenting complexity, without trying to reach simplistic judgements or reductive resolutions. In the process, it tries to shift our consciousness about the world and the way we live in it.

Event details
Date and time: Tuesday, 29th November at 7pm
Venue: The Pavilion Downtown Dubai (location map)
Free entry. Space is limited, so please confirm your attendance by sending an RSVP to miranda[at]gulfphotoplus[dot]com

www.gulfphotoplus.com
www.edwardburtynsky.com/Sections/The_Film/Manufactured_Landscapes.html

Exhibition - photoID

© Philip Cheung

photoID is a new group photography exhibition organised by Gulf Photo Plus, opening on 13th November and will be on till 15th January 2012. The exhibition focuses on the subject of identity with images varying in perspective and approach."the identity of a human being, of a city or organization, even an inanimate object can become warped by stereotypes, assumptions, and multilayer cultural contexts". 

The photographers taking part in this exhibition include Tamara Abdul Hadi, Ammar Al Attar, Richard Allenby-Pratt, Philip Cheung, Gerald Donovan, Katarina Premfors and yours truly. Not only are some of these photographers personal friends, but all are very well respected in the photography community locally and internationally, so I'm in very good company.

In photoID Abdul Hadi deconstructs the stereotypical assumptions of the ‘young male Arab’, whereas Al Attar explores the many faces drawn together on a journey to Mecca. Cheung and Donovan consider the identity of two separate cities, both existing in transition, while Mezaina and Premfors use the identity of inanimate objects in curious states to encourage the viewer to consider what these objects confess about human behaviour.  Allenby-Pratt focuses on Art Dubai, layering images to create interactions that did not in fact exist, yet express more about the identity of the fair than a single image could.

Here's a small selection of the photos from the exhibition.

© Tamara Abdul Hadi

© Ammar Al Attar

© Richard Allenby-Pratt

© Philip Cheung

© Gerald Donovan

© Hind Mezaina

© Katrina Premfors

The exhibition will take place at Gulf Photo Plus' new space in Al Serkal Avenue in Al Quoz. The new venue has a fully equipped photography studio, a retail space stocking photography related products and a lounge area for photographers. The new venue will also host regular workshops and exhibitions.

Event details
Date: Opening on 13th November from 7.00-10.00pm. The exhibition will run till 15th January 2012.
Venue: Gulf Photo Plus, Al Serkal Avenue, Al Quoz (location map)
Free entry.

www.gulfphotoplus.com
www.tamarabdulhadi.com
www.ammaralattar.com
www.allenby-pratt.com
www.philipcheungphoto.com
www.500px.com/geraldd
www.katarinapremfors.com
www.hindmezaina.com

Slidefest V - 11th May 2011

© Philip Cheung

The 5th edition of Slidefest is back this month, on Wednesday, 11th May. Slidefest is an event organised by Gulf Photo Plus where photographers present their personal projects in a variety of genres that can range from documentary projects to fine art, still-life and landscape images. The event also aims to bring photographers (amateurs and pros) and people from the photography community together where people can network, connect and share stories.

Presenters at Slidefest V:

1. Aisha Al Qasimi's Million Faces series tells the story of her discovery into extreme chaos through the streets of India. 
    
2. Catalin Marin, a presenter from the very first Slidefest in October 2009, he will share photos from his trip to Iceland, a breathtaking selection I must add, some of which I featured on this blog last year).  
    
3. Daisy Kwan will present photos from her Abstract series.
    
4. Karen Dias' will show us part of her ongoing series, a documentary project about camel racing, camel jockeys and the life of camel caretakers in the UAE.
    
5. Philip Cheung will share the Soldiers' Angels series, a look at Mortuary Affairs Specialists in Afghanistan. 
    
6. Raja'a Khalid, another presenter from Slidefest I, she will share a series called Empire of Your Dreams, a look at macro close-up photographs of a television screen playing a series of well-known Pakistani drama series from the 1960s-80s. (I featured this series a couple of weeks ago.)
    
7. UBIK  will showcase images that inspire or lead him to his artwork.
     

© Aisha Al Qasimi

© UBIK 

© Raja'a Khalid

© Catalin Marin

Event details:
Date: Wednesday, 11th May at 7pm
Location: Knowledge Village Auditorium, Dubai (location map)
Free entry

www.gulfphotoplus.com

March - a month of art and culture on steroids

Art Dubai 2010

It's March, which means a month of art and culture on steroids in Dubai (and in nearby Sharjah). So if you are hungry for some art, this is the month to step out and find out what's make discover what is on offer.

Here's a brief rundown of what's coming up this month and look out for detailed posts over the next few days for some of the events I'm really looking forward to.

07-12 March - Gulf Photo Plus
08-12 March - Emirates Airline Festival of Literature
13-15 March - Sharjah Art Foundation's March Meeting
16-19 March - Art Dubai
16 March till 16 May - Sharjah Biennial
... and lots of exhibition openings in galleries across Dubai.

Art in the City is a great resource that lists all art related events in the UAE, so have a look if you want detailed information to mark your calendars.

For now, I leave you with this collage of photos I took from last year's Art Dubai and hope to see you around at one or several of the events listed above. 

Slidefest IV - 2nd February 2011

© Katarina Premfors

The 4th edition of Slidefest is this week on Wednesday, 2nd February. It will feature a diverse range of images and photo stories by professional and amateur photographers based in the United Arab Emirates.

Slidefest is an event organised by Gulf Photo Plus where photographers present their personal projects in a variety of genres that can range from documentary projects to fine art, still-life and landscape images. The event also aims to bring photographers (amateurs and pros) and people from the photography community together where people can network, connect and share stories.

© Charney Magri - Women of the UAE

This event is getting more and more popular based on the turn out each time and I'm glad to say that the quality of work that is presented each time is getting better and better as well.

The presenters at Slidefest IV include:
Antonie Robertson
Arezu Karoobi
Charney Magri
Constance Van Heule
Dennie Pasion
Gerry O'Leary
Katarina Premfors

© Arezu - From That Obscure Object series

Event details:
Date: Wednesday, 2nd February at 7pm
Location: Knowledge Village Auditorium, Dubai (location map)
Free entry

www.gulfphotoplus.com

Slidefest III

Photo by Clint McLean

Slidefest is back with its third edition on 3rd November. The second edition that happened in May had a fantastic turnout and great feedback, so I'm looking to seeing what the third edition has in store.

If you are new to Slidefest, it's an event oraganised by Gulf Photo Plus where photographers present their personal projects in a variety of genres that can range from documentary projects to fine art, still-life and landscape images. The event also aims to bring photographers (amateurs and pros) and people from the photography community together where people can network, connect, and share stories.

Event details:
Date: Wednesday, 3rd November at 7pm
Location: Knowledge Village Auditorium, Dubai (location map)
Free entry

Here's the line up for Slidefest III:

Ammar Al Attar
Ammar is an avid Emirati street and documentary photographer based in Sharjah. He will be sharing a series of images taken in and around the streets of Dubai and Sharjah. Ammar shoots with a Leica M6 film camera and will also be giving an insight on the process of shooting and developing film in the Emirates.

Amy Leang
Amy Leang is an American photojournalist currently working for The National. Amy will be presenting images from the Guru Hanuman Akhara Wrestling School which is a wonderful series of images of young wrestlers practicing the art of Kushti in India.

Left: Ammar Al Attar Right: Amy Leung

Aysha Al-Muhairi
Aysha is a program production manager at Dubai Media Inc. and when she is not producing programs, she is an avid photographer and she will be presenting a series of images that highlight the beauty of the ocean. 

Carol Dragon
Carol, a New York based photographer and instructor will be sharing a series of environmental portraits that she has been pursuing where she photographs people in their homes and workplaces because she's fascinated by the challenge of walking into a person’s space and making a portrait that expresses not what she presupposes but what she ends up discovering.

Clint McLean
Clint McLean, also from The National is sometimes photographer, sometimes photo editor and sometimes photography instructor and he will be presenting Saltworks where Clint examines the duality of salt in its humble everyday use with that of its visually compelling natural state.

Martin Prihoda
Martin Prihoda, a successful editorial and commercial photographer originally from Canada has been based in Mumbai since last year and has been doing some great personal and commercial work in India. It is his personal work that he will be sharing in particular two stories; one is a series of portraits of yoga and yogis in and around Rishikesh and Haridwar in Northern India.

Wouter Kingma
Wouter is a professional photographer based in Dubai specializing in sports, outdoor and adventure photography. He will be showcasing work from his Project Endurance series which is a compilation of images from some of the toughest adventure races on the planet and will also share video clips from the documentary.


www.gulfphotoplus.com

Update on Wednesday, November 3, 2010 at 1:10AM by The Culturist

One more photographer has been added to the line up:

Nasra Edde, she will present a stop motion photography project of portraits of women over the age of 40.

Slidefest II

Photo from Slidefest I, October 2009
Slidefest is an event oraganised by Gulf Photo Plus that aims to bring photographers (amateurs and pros) and people from the photography community together where people can network, connect, and share stories. Photographers can present their personal photography projects in a variety of genres that can range from documentary projects to fine art, still-life and landscape images.

The first Slidefest was in October 2009 and I remember really enjoying the evening. I saw some amazing work and met new photographers. So I feel very honored to be taking part in the second Slidefest event, taking place on 19th May. The other photographers presenting include: 

• Tariq Dajani
• Gerald Donovan
• Lamya Gargash
• Matilde Gattoni
• Michael Christopher Green
• Michael McKelvie
• Nadine Kanso
• Oz Newcombe
• Sid Siva & Jamal Iqbal

Event details:
Date: Wednesday, 19th May at 8pm
Location: Knowledge Village Auditorium, Dubai (location map)
Free entry


www.gulfphotoplus.com

In the Blink of an Eye - Photography Exhibition

In the Blink of an Eye is an exhibition showcasing the work of 6 internationally renowned photographers that will be in Dubai next week to host workshops and lectures organised by Gulf Photo Plus.

The photographers include David Nightingale, Steve Simon, Robin Nichols, Zach Arias, Joey Lawrence and Melissa Rodwell. Each

Click to read more ...