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Time and tides: photographing Qatar

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Time and Tides


London-based photographer Henry Dallal has recently finished an extensive project capturing the Gulf state of Qatar on film


P hotographer Henry Dallal can number among his achievements portraits of HM Queen Elizabeth II and award-winning books about the UK’s Household Cavalry and India’s élite 61st Cavalry regiment.

His most recent venture, a sumptuous book entitled Qatar; Sand, Sea and Sky, saw him taking his cameras to the Arabian Gulf, to capture a very different subject matter – in this case a nation that is being transformed on an almost daily basis.

He says: ‘A mutual friend introduced me to Diana Untermeyer and her husband Chase, who had just finished being the US Ambassador in Qatar.’

‘We began a partnership where she would author and I would photograph for the book. Having received much support from organisations such as the Qatar Foundation, RasGas, Exxon Mobile, Qatari Diar and Barwa and having being honoured with a foreword from Her Highness Sheikha Mayassa, I then travelled throughout the country to try to capture Qatar’s spirit through photography. It was Diana’s intimate familiarity with the country and her many friends which made the photography much easier, opening more doors and welcoming arms.’

What Dallal discovered was a country where heritage remains important, where natural treasures often remain untouched and where the evidence of new economic growth is omnipresent.

‘This project was different from all my others, such as Horse Warriors, India’s 61st Cavalry, and Pageantry and Performance, The Household Cavalry in a Celebration of Pictures,’ he says. This collection of photographs was about the entire country rather than horses, which are my usual subjects for books. I photographed Qatar over a three-year period. Each visit revealed new changes, even in periods as short as one month.

‘I loved spending time in Souq Waqif as well as photographing the Museum of Islamic Art. I was in Doha the day Qatar was awarded the 2022 Football World Cup and saw how the whole country erupted into celebration as one big family.

‘Over the past few years I have spent a lot of time within the Gulf region for different photography projects. Each particular country or state differs greatly. Attitudes, nature and pace of development vary everywhere. I was surprised on several occasions by the weather and the nature. On my very first visit to Doha, it was freezing cold and there was snow in the desert. We had to buy overcoats – which were hard to find. I really enjoyed spending time in the desert. During spring, there were whole areas that were carpeted with green shoots of grass. That was a surprise.

‘I was also captivated by the story of the pearl divers. I was invited into family homes and shown natural pearls that are now family heirlooms, passed down from fathers and grandfathers who were traders of pearls.’

Unusually for a modern-day photographer, Dallal continues to work with film, which adds a different element to his shooting. ‘All my work, including books, is shot exclusively on film with no digital manipulation,’ he says. ‘Today too many photographs are no longer honest interpretations of that fleeting moment.

‘Much of my photography is of landscape and nature, with a big emphasis on the equine world. I am always thrilled and honoured to be commissioned to do portraits of people whom I admire. Hence I have been honoured to photograph Her Majesty the Queen both formally and informally with Her horses.


‘All my work is shot exclusively on film, with no digital manipulation.’


‘The ultimate thrill in photography for me is when I have captured a moment of reality on film. When viewed for the first time on my lightbox, I see this photo as a jewel, a work of art that captures the moment and gives off an emotion with a combination of magical light, colour and a special spirit – all the ingredients for a work of art.

‘It does not happen too often, but when you capture that one image it is a great feeling. These are the photos that end up in a gallery or auction house.’

Dallal is currently putting the finishing touches to a book about the Royal Cavalry of Oman and is also working, among other projects, on a book about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which will be published to coincide with the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. His images of the Household Cavalry were also chosen recently to feature in the public areas of luxury real estate development One Hyde Park in Knightsbridge.

‘My images of the Household Cavalry are iconic of British equine pageantry, embodying the peak of British excellence, whether the soldiers are on parade or exercising in Hyde Park,’ he adds. ‘The developers of One Hyde Park wanted to have the finest works of art in the common areas and I am lucky that they selected a number of my images on this subject to be included in that collection.’

Words: Staff

The Facts

Qatar; Sand, Sea and Sky
By Diana Untermeyer and Henry Dallal
Published by Bright Sky Press
Houston, Texas

Henry Dallal’s studio
26a Pont Street Mews
Knightsbridge
London
SW1X OAF
Tel: +44 (0)20 7225 0707
henrydallalphotography.com


This article was originally published in Halycon magazine in 2011.


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