The history of photography in Saudi Arabia is as old as the discovery of oil in the Kingdom. Oil companies were among the first to import cameras, photographers and darkroom materials. Since the 1950s, Saudis have been capturing the development of their ever-changing urban surroundings, vast landscapes, and social environments.

‘Saudi Seen’ presents diverse perspectives from the inside Saudi Arabia, captured by a new generation of image-makers, working across documentary, art, portrait, and landscape photography. In a way, these images are a counterweight to somewhat limited nature of the outside view. Featured photographers include: Adriano Pimento, Akram Alamoudi, Bader Awwad Albalawi, Filwa Nazer, Iman Al-Dabbagh, Kholood Saleh Al-bakr, Majid Angawi, Moath Alofi, Sami Altokhais and Tasneem Alsultan.

This exhibition is organised by the Art Jameel curatorial team, advised by photographer and artist Ahmed Mater; with several photographers having been previously shortlisted for the Art Jameel Photography Award (2010-2016) and/or participants in its successor programme, Photography Jameel.

Featured image by Adriano Pimenta

Held in collaboration with edgy Tokyo-based Einstein Studio, CHI-KA presents the opening of 'New Japan Photo - Issue 4 & 5'. Showing for the second time in Dubai, the exhibition features emerging and award-winning Japanese photographers leaving a mark on the contemporary fine art photography scene in Tokyo and beyond.

This exhibition will show a curated selection of shortlisted candidate works, as well as recipients of the prestigious Japan Photo Award. The Award, which started in 2013 by Einstein Studio, is currently the largest photography award in Japan, held biannually and involving over 3000 participants.

Jury members include established curators and editors, such as Simon Baker (Tate’s Senior Curator of Photography), and Charlotte Cotton (Independant Curator and Writer / former Head of Programming at The Photographers' Gallery, London, and former Curator of Photography at the V&A, London). 

Past and present meet in the middle of the desert. They came in their hundreds from as far as Nejd, the heart of Saudi kingdom, and Dhofar, the last lands of Oman before it borders with Yemen. They came in caravans, huge jeeps and trucks, one after another, loaded with camping gear and, of course, their most precious cargo - their camels.

For 20 days they set camp at the desert of Al Gharbia, the Western Region of Abu Dhabi Emirate, just like in the old days. It was a revival of the bedouin traditions, with more than 1500 camel owners and dozens of thousands of animals coming together for Al Dhafra Festival. Spontaneous celebrations always followed the camel beauty contests, parades erupting at the “Million Street”, the desert campsite area around the main event locations.

The proud owners kept dancing in circles in the middle of the road, loud music and cheering everywhere, with the winning camels always at the centre of the stage, dressed in shiny fabrics and ornaments. Standing still in the middle of all this chaos, one realizes that these men celebrate the simple fact that they are here and now, alive on earth.

techarc is an open space where students, innovators, artists, entrepreneurs, and all interested in the art of creation can engage with one another, share and learn from each other’s experiences, and embark on expeditions in this new world of making.

techarc will be showing VR simulations of exciting photography projects at their space during Photo Week. If you are curious to see how VR can shift your focus when it comes to distributing photography and film projects, don't miss this.

What does the IKEA concept 'to create a better everyday life for the many people' look like?

Caoimhe Jane Reynolds' photographs are astute and follow in a tradition of looking at the commodification of domesticity through image and performance.

However, while works such as Martha Rosler's 'Semiotics of the Kitchen' (1975) were boldly confrontational, Reynolds sits calmly facing away from the camera.

Provoking the idea that IKEA is both a welcome tenant and intruder in our contemporary lives, her 'Better Now' series, portrays her both as complicit and yet physically interrupting the space of an IKEA show-home.

Caoimhe Jane Reynolds was born in Kuwait and is a recent graduate of Ireland’s prestigious National College of Art and Design. In 2016 she was shortlisted for Royal Dublin Society’s Young Artist of the Year award.

Olaf Breuning studied photography at the Zuercher Hochschule der Kuenste and Winterthur (Switzerland). Breuning’s artworks, in whichever of the plethora of media it emerges in, deals with the “big questions in life” through a language that merges mass- culture and art manifesting a body of ephemeral works made permanent via artistic documentation constituting of humorous art without ridiculing art.

Breuning has had over 320 exhibitions worldwide, his works are exhibited in the most important galleries and art fairs worldwide, and has many public installations and permanent public sculptures in various locations in North America and Europe, proving a fixture in the contemporary arts and culture.

In his most recent work titled “Pattern Color”, Breuning uses the application of color and human figures to exceptionally show the patterns and combinations that colors can generate.  The lighting and blending of this piece bring visual satisfaction to all who appreciating a little color in their life.

Green Art Gallery presents a selection of works by Syrian Photographer Jaber Al Azmeh (b. 1973 in Damascus). 

Through his photographs, Al Azmeh promotes unity and freedom. Works on view include his most recent series Border-lines (2016); black and white series The Resurrection (2014); and Wounds (2012).

Born in Brussel, Pia Torelli is a French-American, award-winning professional photojournalist based in Dubai. She is graduate of the San Francisco Academy of Art University.

Torelli discovered and fell in love with Afghanistan at the end of the 70’s, in her own words the country was marvelous and peaceful with amazing landscape and great people - small paradise.

In 2002 and 2013 she returned to Kabul. Twenty-three years of war and five years of drought have created a city of ruin.  Torelli was overwhelmed with sadness, anger, and disappointment.

“Walk Alone in Afghanistan” is a testimony of women who refuse to give up. 

Born in 1966 and raised near Orange Air Force Base in France, Manolo Chrétien has vivid childhood memories of gazing out his bedroom window in awe of the aircrafts soaring through the sky. As the son of Jean-Loup Chrétien, a test pilot and the first French astronaut, hangars filled with prototype jet planes were his playground. He developed his passion for aviation early on in his life, though this was not expressed publicly until later.

In a powerful yet playful approach, Chrétien captures the essence of famed aircraft nose-to-face as it were. His images offer a dynamic and unusual dead-on visual perspective. This is further accentuated by the circular cut-out format, which follows the shape of the aircraft’s fuselage.

Each plane has a story to tell, whether this is expressed through corrosion or damage from war: their skin defects reveal the aircraft’s souls. The eight photographs in the Nose Art exhibition endow each aircraft with a humanistic personality, as if the faces of the planes were happily smiling or cautiously glaring. Endless interpretations are left to the observer’s imagination.

A photography exhibition of dhow images from around the world curated by dhow race photographer Sue Johnston

Launching in collaboration with GPP Photo Week 2018, Tariq Dajani’s instantly recognisable photographic work commands immediate attention. Through perfect composition, his lens urges us to consider the beauty and majesty of nature. It is both raw and polished, celebratory and cautionary. Drinkers Of The Wind talks of history and belonging; the exhibition is an ode to the sands of time. 

Dajani’s interest in Middle Eastern culture and history is abundantly clear in ‘Asil’ – a celebration of the beauty and power of the Arabian horse. An Arabic word signifying purity, nobility and authenticity, the ‘Asil’ collection features a number of impactful photographic studies in which the Arabian horse is brought to the fore. Like the Arabian horses of Dajani’s ‘Asil’ series, the exhibition will also feature Dajani’s “Sakr” series. 

The history of falconry in the Middle East is as ancient as the emergence of its civilisations. Widely considered a symbol of ancient Arabia, in this series each photograph sheds new light. The viewer is asked to look with fresh eyes at each image, to consider a new version of this enigmatic and powerful bird. We see the noble falcon, wings outstretched, head proudly tilted.

RC Concepcion is the author of the bestselling book How to Get Your Photography on the Web and The HDR Book – Unlocking the Pros' Hottest Post-Processing Techniques. RC is an education and curriculum developer for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, and one of the Photoshop Guys. An award-winning photographer and Adobe Certified Instructor in Photoshop, Illustrator, and Lightroom, RC has over 14 years in the tech industry, designing sites and training thousands in Adobe technologies. RC has held training seminars and workshops in the US, Europe, and Latin America.

See more of his work on his website.

The Rug Company launched a capsule collection for its 20th anniversary with new handmade rugs by leading designers Paul Smith, Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, Kelly Wearstler and Suzanne Sharp.

Artists including Mary McCartney have been commissioned to photograph the designers and their creative spaces, transporting us into a world of imagination, inspiration and innovation. 

The Third Line is a Dubai-based art gallery that represents contemporary Middle Eastern artists locally, regionally and internationally. This group exhibition highlights the gallery's dynamic program with the selection of these following artists and their works:

Arwa Abouon's Silent Sight series questions the significance of vision, the most heightened of our senses yet perhaps the least relevant when attempting to see within ourselves and believe.

Farah Al Qasimi captures the balance, or lack thereof, of the interdependence between consumer culture and young people; her portraits move between visibility and invisibility, with figures being abstracted, obfuscated or revealed as a play on conventional portraiture.