Heritage village in Abu Dhabi is a strange little place, off of the Marina Mall bridge. From the beach, you get a great view of the corniche. If you go a little further, you get to see the large flag up close, next to the National Theater.

The village itself is a reconstruction of life in Abu Dhabi before the petrol boom, and an assortment of little museums and tourist shops. I’m not sure when it was built, but it is not aging very well. Some of the pieces in the museum collection as well as the reconstruction of different types of dwellings are very interesting, but dusty and a bit run down. And since it is an obligatory stop for all cruise ship city tours, its continuously filled with gaggles of chinese or german tourists.

I do hope that the Emirate decides to invest a little bit, maybe once Al Hosn fort is complete. In the meantime, a few random shots of the area, starting with the obligatory bizarre translation. There are about a dozen of those placards around the village, with one side in Arabic and the other in English, carrying excerpts from Sheikh Khalifa’s speech on the 40th anniversary of the UAE. All of them have some bizarre turns of phrases, but “Factors of Retail” was the most absurd yet funny in so many ways.

Inside one of the halls are a number of pictures of Sheikh Zayed, some of them I’d never seen before, which is rare considering most places run on the same 5 or 6 shots. This one looks like Shaikh Zayed performing Umra (there are a couple like this). Some have him visiting a girl’s school.

The other place I’ve seen very interesting shots of him is the Vehicle Licensing and Registration office – if you ask to go to the men’s room, it’s on the ground floor, in a disused suite of offices – and there are rows and rows of pictures of the Sheikh with Police and Army units. Because it was in a Police building, I haven’t taken pictures, but next time you go renew your license plate, do check it out!

The hall with the pictures also houses a few models of dhows, and posters outside will explain the various types (if you can wade, again, through the broken english).

Finally, on the beach behind the village, you can rent those water bikes. I have to say that the colors and the setting were screaming SEVENTIES to me, and I came home wanting to watch reruns of the Prisonner. And people say there’s nothing to see in Abu Dhabi! Sheesh.

So Wax Tailor came to Abu Dhabi. If you don’t know him, go and listen to some of his stuff here (careful, the site has music on it). It’s ok, the blog can wait.

Like it? Me too. Not earth shattering, but very nice intricate stuff with tons of little finds.

I was very curious what a concert would be like. When I realized that there would be maybe 50 of us in the little garden he was playing, I went and grabbed my camera from the car – where else can i get stage access to try out my concert photography?

I hadn’t brushed up on technique at all, so the shots where mostly miss with a few hits in between.

So a nice evening – although I’m not sure Wax Tailor and his band appreciated it as much. He did mention more than a few times that we were his smallest big crowd of the tour. It does go to show that marketing is extremely important to things like this…

Oh well, he probably won’t be coming back to AD anytime soon. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures.

Abu Dhabi is busy growing as a city and a capital. For a long time, it was lagging behind Dubai, and in some respects it still is. It has a much more provincial feel to it. But it is also much more deliberate in its approach. A capital city should be a center of culture: so A.D. is building a whole island dedicated to culture. Saadiyat today is a strip of sand with a huge highway running down the middle. Tomorrow it will be the home of 5 museums, including the Louvre and the Guggenheim.
As a preparation exercise, TDIC, the company that’s charged with developing tourism and culture in A.D., has entered into a partnership with the British Museum to present an exhibition on the “Splendours of Mesopotamia“. It’s housed at the Manarat al Saadiyat hall.

It’s an impressive exhibition. The British Museum hasn’t skimped on the pieces on offer. The pieces are well presented clearly labelled and well lit. The series of – free – lectures and workshops is well made and interesting.

As with most events here, there is an attempt to link the Mesopotamian history to that of the UAE and of Sheikh Zayed. Although it may seem contrived at times, one thing is clear: Zayed understood that no country can have a future if it doesn’t think about its past. I sincerely hope that exhibits like this, and the future museums, will help ground Emiratis, especially the younger generation, in a sense of belonging to a wider world.

Between the workshops and other visits, my wife and I have probably been there once every week since the start. If you haven’t been there, you have until the end of June to go and visit. It’s free, and really, really well worth it. Also do try the Fanar restaurant. (those of you who follow this blog know that I don’t recommend restaurants unless I really like them …)

A few weeks ago, TDIC kindly agreed to let me take some pictures inside the exhibition. Thanks to everybody who made that particular visit possible, and especially to Mitra Birgani who accompanied me while I was there. I can only apologize that it took me that long to post the pictures.

all the rights on the pictures reserved to the British Museum.

Although Dawn of History is actually a very good exhibition, it can be a bit of a disappointement if you go by the title alone. The subject here are the first archeological expeditions run in the region, by Danish archeologists under the patronage of Sheikh Shakbut and Sheikh Zayed, from 1958 to 1972. In this sense, it is the Dawn of History in the UAE. So if you were looking at in depth details of the cultures in the region in the stone age, you’re likely to be surprised at seeing some old style bakelite telephones, a couple of passports and a used pack of Rothman’s blue cigarettes.

I’ve said in other posts I think it’s a great thing that the UAE is opening itself to arts and history. I also think the country is doing a pretty good job of it. What Dawn of History makes clear is that this is not a new trend. Shakhbut and Zayed already had a notion of anchoring the country in its past and in its region more than 50 years ago. Not long by our standards, but literally a lifetime ago for this region.

Eventually, it will be nice to have an understanding of the political thoughts underlying these actions. But we are probably still too close to the events, and the country is still too young. Let’s hope future historians find the subject interesting enought to devote some time to it.

In the meantime, enjoy Dawn of History for what it is: a clear glimpse of the makings of a modern nation.

And once you’re down there, go next door to see – Mubarak bin London: Wilfred Thesiger and the freedom of the desert, another great exhibit.

I was in Al Ain over the week end for a Car Rally with the French Speaking association. Fun time all over (got in third, with only two adults in the team … woo woo). On Saturday, I stopped by Al Jahlil fort before heading back, to visit the two exhibits there. The permanent exhibit is called Mubarak bin London: Wilfred Thesiger and the freedom of the desert  and the temporary one, running until the beginning of May, is called Dawn of History.  I’ll write about Dawn of History in a next post, once I’m done with editing the pictures.

Wilfried Thesiger (1910-2003) is one of the last British explorers with strong ties to the Arab world, in the lineage of Lawrence of Arabia. He crossed the Rub al Khali (empty quarter) a few times in the 1940s. Among the friends he made in what was to become the UAE was a young man, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who would become the founding father of the new nation.

In a reminder of the character and hardship of the region, the exhibit is spartan, with an exclusive focus on the pictures. The only extraneous material is a glass case containing samples of Thesiger’s arab gear, his bullet belt, and his Leica camera. The agency in charge of the project did a great job: lighting, signage, ordering … everything is perfect, and the visit is short enough to maintain my 6 year old’s interest – hats off!

The collection on show includes about 100 pictures (I think …). Wikipedia says Thesinger’s lifetime collection of pictures tops 20 000 shots. I don’t know how many of them are from his Arab period, but the curators certainly did a great job in chosing the best. From my perspective, the exhibit works as well from a historical as from an artistic point of view. One gets a great sense of history – with shots of daily life in the Arab world in the 40s. At the same time, all prints show a magnificent sense of composition and lighting, which makes them gorgeous works of art.

Unfortunately, the bookshop was all out of the english language catalog. The book looks like it’s as well made as the exhibit – and seems to include all the pictures … oh well, a trip to Magrudy’s should fix this.

I didn’t take pictures this time, because it seemed kind of pointless. I really, really encourage you to go and see for yourself.

Manarat al Saadiyat is the future Saadiyat Island visitor center. As far as I can tell, it’s the only finished cultural building yet on the island, which will host the Zayed National Museum, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, and a slew of other museums.  Right now (and for at least three months) it’s hosting an exhibition of pieces on loan from the British Museum – Splendours of Mesopotamia.

My wife and I went yesterday, to listen to the inaugural lecture by the curator of the exhibition, the keeper of the Middle East collection at the British Museum, and the director of the British Museum himself… We only paid a cursory visit to the exhibit, but it seems well designed – more in a later post.

The lectures were fascinating, but a bit hard to follow. It’s strange to me that museum curators don’t train to give public presentations – after all, part of their work is to make the objects and concepts available to the public understanding.

Neil McGregor (director of the BM) was an exception. He’s the man behind the BBC series A History of the world in 100 Objects, and it shows – a confident speaker and easy to follow ideas in bite size chunks. In a bow to local conditions, and given his position on the board of the Zayed Museum, he did have to link most his objects in some way to the UAE and its history, which was, at some times a big stretch. But that difficulty itself is giving me pause for thought. Despite the paucity of local history, Zayed and his successors have realized that you can’t have hope for a country that is not grounded in the past and in culture. They’re attacking the problem in a typical Gulf fashion, by throwing vast amounts of money at it and insisting on “the best”. But in the end, they are not building yet another financial center, or another tallest tower which nobody will occupy. They are finally building something that will give generations of schoolchildren a grounding in some of the great art and the great history of this world. And in the end, if history lets them, they will re-create their own cultural history – and I’m proud to live at a time when I can see it happening.

Today’s post doesn’t have the usual complement of photos. It was dark, and I took just one HDR shot of the Manarat. I’m going to ask if I can take pictures of the exhibition itself, and hopefully post a few here …

My work was giving away free tickets to the semi final game of the President’s cup, between Abu Dhabi’s Al Jazira and Dubai’s Al Shabab. I’m no football fan, but it was my son’s “birthday week”, so I figured it would be the Dad thing to do.
I was quite impressed by the club’s generosity, until i realized what the actual attendance numbers where: the stadium was empty. Total audience was maybe a tenth of the stadium capacity! And this is a semi final, between two of the better clubs in the UAE league …
The crowd more than made up in volume what it lacked in quantity. One of the Al Jazira supporters was even playing the bagpipes. It was fun to see my son completely enthralled by the atmosphere. I don’t think he realized there was a game on the pitch, although he did cheer when “our team” scored two goals.

Wow, what a week-end! After the One Light workshop on Wednesday, I went to Zack’s “On Location” workshop Thursday and Saturday.
I could be charitable to myself and say that I chose the right workshop, just enough out of my comfort zone to take me to the next level. Truth is: I was completely out of my depth. Good thing though, Zack is of the “Try, Fail, Next time, try to fail better” school of thought … which helped a lot to pull me through, although I confess I almost went and threw my camera under the bus at some points. Then I thought better of it, and decided to buy more gear instead. (shakes head in shame)

Fun story to tell my kids some day – we got busted from our Karama location – even though we had all the right paperwork. Classic GulfGlitch ™. As things were starting to get ugly, Zack stayed cool, extracted us and paid for lunch – very classy (and the best example of his “Remember you’re in the SERVICE INDUSTRY mantra, I guess)

I can’t help but think that we were asking for it, bringing models in the place, but that may be just me.

Minor gripe – I don’t think we gelled as a group, and so it was a bit “to each is own”. Again, to be fair, Zack did his best to give some attention to all of us, and he changed the format a bit on the second day so that it was a little more structured – and it did work a lot better. Again, teaching by example

So all in all, I’m a happy camper.

Now I can inflict the photos on you, unsuspecting reader …

@zarias nice enough to follow me + @gulfphotoplus nice enough to link to yesterday’s article = now this blog has officially more than 100 readers. Seriously giddy stuff, guys.
So thanks and welcome tto all.

No worries for my ego, though : back to 3 as of this morning.

What I hate about these spikes is that they crunch the data scales for months afterwards, so I feel even more like i’m speaking in the desert. Which, I know, technically I am.

Ok, one day of rest and then back to the last day of class + THE SHOOT OUT.
Yeah.

OK, my brain is blown, I’ve got way too much information in there, and I don’t think the pieces of the puzzle will fit before a few years.
But the man is certainly a very lively host, and the 11 hour workshop (well 10, we broke for lunch) went by in a breeze.
Now off to bed before i trudge back to Dubai tomorrow morning for an On Location shoot with the same man.
But not without giving you his link – http://zackarias.com/ – and of course a few photos.

A disclaimer: No, my photography has not just dramatically changed… but i’ve learned that with the right light setup, well actually, pressing the shutter is fun and gives great results … Now to convince Zack to set up my lighting every time.

PS – also, a shout-out to the GPP organizers. This thing seems to go by without most of the hitches we’re used to in the region …