Bahrain House of Photography

Abdulla Al Khan of Bahrain House of Photography has been photographing the country since 1945. He now has an archive of more than 1,500,000 photographs which are under the process of being transferred to a massive collection of digital imagery. The Bahrain House of Photography, where all the negatives are stored is now in the process of being transformed into a photographic museum to honor the royal family of the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Al Khan started out his career at Bapco where he got a job photographing mechanical problems, site developments and public relations events, however this did not deter his passion for capturing Bahrain’s richest cultural assets. Al Khan’s studio walls are adorned with pictures of Bahrain’s past from pearl divers to dhow captains. He is credited for introducing wedding photography to the Kingdom of Bahrain, an idea he brought back with him from his studies in photography at Ealing Technical College. As a result, Al Khan soon established himself in the Kingdom as the official photographer for many of the key events in the lives of Bahrain’s royal family members, photographing everything from weddings to birthdays.

Al Khan also developed a special relationship with the late Amir HH Shaikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, who once described Al Khan as “My eyes in the Kingdom”. In fact Al Khan acted as an eye witness to the realities of the nation, he recalls, “I went around taking photographs of Bahrain as it really was to show Shaikh Isa”.

Commercially Mr Al Khan continued to work with the Ministry of Housing and Works for over 30 years, documenting the new developments of the kingdom from helicopters. Al Khan says comically, “I have probably had more flight time than any pilot in Bahrain”. His archives from sky view chronicle in detail the changes in the country’s landscape such as views of Isa Town as a desert to the new developments at Durrat Al Bahrain. The richness of his archives document, amongst others, the first cables being laid for Isa Town. His most recent projects include monitoring developments of Durrat Al Bahrain and the Bahrain Financial Harbour (BFH).

Today Al Khan’s most daunting task continues to be the digitalization of his vast collection at Bahrain House of Photography. He is the only person with the knowledge of the stories behind each picture, so the work has to be done himself. Whereby other countries reserve Government spending to archive all of their history, Al Khan is doing this on his own expenses. He determines that, “it is vital to remind the younger generation of what we were and where we came from, to record history for them”. His only hope is that he is still around to complete all the work. In five years only one third of his archives have been documented digitally.

Al Khan goes on to discuss the advent of digital photography likening it to fast food in comparison to the manual art that took more time but provided the same sensations as quality dining. He believes that although fast food exists that there is still a need for fine dining. His passion for photography is resounding, as he understands deeply the value of his work. He views each of his pieces as his children and says of his work, “You would not say I prefer this son because he is rich or this daughter because she is beautiful, they are all your creations and they are equally valuable” and “So I do not have any photographs which are my favorites. Though I am proud of the photos I have taken of the royal family.”

Books by Al Khan:
1. Bahrain Old Houses
2. Muharraq The Sea Rose
3. Democracy of 1973

Al Khan also had several exhibitions in the Kingdom of Bahrain and abroad and now has his own permanent exhibition at Bahrain House of Photography.