Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/08/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]on 8/20/01 1:28 PM, Jason Vicinanza at jason@futurafish.com wrote: > I will be working in Saudi Arabia for a couple of days next week. Although > ive worked in the Middle East before ive never been to Saudi. > > Does anyone have any advice re photography in the region. I don?t suppose > street photography is big over there and could possible land me in a lot > of hot water. Should I even bother? Any advice appreciated. > > Cheers > > Jason Vicinanza Jason I lived and worked in Saudi for several years and found that it's very hard to paint the whole country with one brush (which I imagine is true for most countries of the world.) I guess the best question is where will you be in Saudi? The eastern provinces are Shiite and are very orthodox - women in black from head to toe. Be careful photographing women here. Better yet, I wouldn't do it. However the villages are so intriguing. Like a time machine thousands of years back in time. Date trees. Donkey carts. Lovely architecture. Lots to photograph. The central part of Saudi is pure desert. Tall sand dunes. Some oasis with palm trees. Very photogenic. Here the religion is mixed between Shiite and Sunni. The royal family is Sunni and they are much more progressive than they let on to their subjects. (Insights I learned from knowing the royal family's "official" photographer - who by the way is a woman.) Riyad is the biggest city in the desert and is quite an amazing town. The west coast of Saudi is almost purely Sunni and people here are way more open about things than their east coast countrymen and women. In Jeddah and Taif women wear brightly colored clothes, own their own businesses and are out on the streets. The people are very nice all over Saudi - but here things are much more open and laid back. I wouldn't worry nearly as much about offending folks with street photos here. Beautiful architecture - especially in the ancient city of Taif. Hope this helps. Bring back an antique hand made brass coffee pot if you can find one. This is the birth place of coffee drinking and their pots are classic. Patrick Markham Olympia, WA Starbucks land