Sharjah24: Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF) presents Photographic Encounters along the Gulf Coasts, comprising 165 photographs and archival documents from the collection of His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah. Opening on 8 November 2025, this exhibition serves as a starting point for research into how photography translates and interprets history.
On permanent display at the Foundation’s new Photography Gallery in Al Manakh, the exhibition features late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century glass slides depicting people, places, and activities along the Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean littorals, revealing the region as a vital nexus of trade, culture, and human connection. These images speak in some ways to notions of power, class, gender, and ethnicity, signalling the prevailing cultural attitudes of the time.
As the photographer, date, and location for each image have not been conclusively established, the exhibition presents the collection as found artefacts. Some of the images have ‘titles’; however, it is unclear who added them and when. Associations between texts and images may change as they circulate through time and space. These photographs thus carry history not only through the subjects portrayed but also through the multiple layers of reproduction, inscription, and interpretation embedded within them.
The exhibition also centres photography as a medium. The glass slides on which the images were reproduced, as well as the magic lantern—considered a precursor to modern slide projectors—offer insight into photographic innovations of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
As the Foundation’s archival research endeavour continues, the photographs in this exhibition will help situate historical narratives of the Arabian Gulf region within global histories, shining a light on colonial and postcolonial modes of knowledge production and dissemination.
For an optimal experience, please
