A picture is worth a thousand words. Here we see the hubble bubble among the rubble. Only in Lebanon.
Category Archives: Photography
A Photographer among the Syrian Bedouin
Morning Mist
A Life with a Bedouin family in Syria — from the Far East to the Middle East —
by Megumi YOSHITAKE, JAPAN
At the age of 15 the story of T. E. Lawrence [Lawrence of Arabia] captured my heart and mind. Ever since, I have yearned after deserts and been enchanted by the Arab world, and wanting to convey the essence of these places in my own way is what caused me to choose photography as my path.
I first visited Syria in 1987, and have spent part of every year from 1995 onwards living with a family of Bedouin in the Syrian Desert. Initially I was single, but visited again on my honeymoon after getting married and introduced my husband. I returned once more in 2004, this time bringing along my 16-month-old son. The time I have spent photographing the Bedouin — amounting to some 14 years — is unique among Japanese and rare even worldwide.
A Bedouin father and his daughter
To read the full story and look at the gallery of photographs, click here.
Pounding the Streets of Baghdad
What’s in a photograph? This century old postcard depicts a scene in Baghdad with the emphasis on wooden utensils (ecrasseurs) for pounding rice, wheat and coffee.
A Turkish Barber
A Turkish Barber: Constantinople
From Mary Mills Patrick, “The Emancipation of Mohammedan Women,†published in the National Geographic Magazine, January 1909 (Volume XX, No. 1, pp. 61-62).
Jews of Yemen prefer to stay
Group of Yemenite Jews, postcard c. 1910
by Salma Ismail, The Yemen Times, June 28
SANA’A, June 28 The death sentence passed on Abdulaziz Al-Abdi, charged with killing Yemeni Jewish and father of nine Masha Al-Nahari last December, heeds mixed reactions among the Jewish community in Yemen.
Despite growing US and Israeli pressure to bring them out of Yemen and settle them in other destinations, the majority of Yemen’s Jews prefer to stay in their ancestral homeland, as long as the government ensures their safety.
Last Sunday’s ruling overturned a previous March sentence that deemed the defendant, a retired pilot in the Yemeni air force, “mentally unstable” and ordered him to pay a “blood fine” of YR 50.5 million, about USD 25,000. Continue reading Jews of Yemen prefer to stay
Postcard from Lebanon
Another nostalgic scene of Lebanon, this time the original fast food.
Postcards from Beirut
Since I am currently in Beirut and I am not sure what my internet access will be on a regular basis, here are some old postcard views of Beirut, starting with the image above of the Beirut Post Office from about a century ago.
An Ottoman Baghdad Portrait
The Library of Congress has archived thousands of illustrations and photographs online. In browsing through some of the collections, I came across the above image taken in Baghdad in 1872, when the city was under Ottoman control. The photographer was Pascal Sébah. According to the description, the three individuals shown are: (1): Arab of the Chammar (Shammar) tribe; (2): Arab of the Zobeid tribe; and (3): married Muslim woman of Baghdad.