Two young girls play hopscotch on the street in Bahrain’s Muharraq neighbourhood. The country’s oldest ‘town’ is still home to hundreds of ancient houses and historical structures and the area’s residents identify strongly with old Bahraini traditions and ancient way of living. Many of Bahrain’s well-known tourist destinations are also situated on the island.
Writers are lampposts and critics are dogs. Ask lampposts what they think about dogs. Does the dog hurt the lamppost?
-Paulo Coelho
Two photography enthusiasts ‘captured’ during an outing in Northern Bahrain’s Budaiya Municipal Garden. This chance encounter shows one of the men taking a picture while the other captures his friend, both oblivious to a third amateur having caught them in his own frame!
This is the picture on display at the exhibition
This was the day I was waiting for. In a way, this is the beginning. For the first time, I had a picture taken by me feature in an exhibition the Bahrain Arts Centre.
It felt good there – describing to guests where I took the picture and what camera and lens used. Suddenly, all eyes, it seemed, were on me. Some news photographers also clicked away.
Suddenly, I was on the other side of the fence and it felt so different. Till a few weeks ago, I was writing the news now I am ‘making’ it. I would have ordinarily been giving the caption for this picture in tomorrow’s paper.
Well, things have changed. It’s beginning to sink in – slowly!
That said, and I am no great photographer or judge or even a critic, but some of the work displayed at the show was heavily Photoshopped – with the originality hidden. What’s the point in taking a picture and giving it a makeover? In my amateurish opinion, the greatest pictures are those taken without the subject posing and without any technology being used to ‘reform’ the work.
Technology is available but, coupled with imagination, should be used to take a great picture – not make it. I was disappointed in that sense.
I never expected to win anything – and I did not – but I did not even hope to be up on the wall but I was, from among possibly thousands of photographs sent in by hundreds of professionals and amateurs. And that gives me a great feeling.
This is only the beginning. More will come. And, sooner, rather than later, I will be up there – for a podium finish!
While Bahrain is more than self-sufficient in oil and gas and has no worries at least for the next few decades, the leadership’s pragmatic approach has made sure there is heavy investment in harnessing the abundant wind and sunlight as well. This experimental wind and solar energy station in the Awali Township is the first such major step. Power from this facility is already energizing part of the exclusive residential area and, all going well, it will soon be expanded to cover vast areas spread across the country.
MANDEEPSINGS 