By Isabel Ovalle
More than 750 photographers are part of Qatar Photographic Society (QPS), including 300 women. Local passion for photography has grown in the past few years, to the point that half the members of the Society are Qatari, the rest being expatriates.
Ahmed Yousef Al Khulaifi, chairman of the Society, said, “A photographer should not take more than 12 photos per day to be able to compose the elements inside the frame of the photo. This is how in our small family, good photographers pop up.”
He added: “The good photo is the one that has an impact in your emotions. The rest of the photos, maybe, have not moved you but have moved other people.” The photography aficionado noted that with new technologies, communicating via images was very common -- a phenomenon that has increased thanks to social media.
Last year, the Society organised about 16 exhibitions and over 90 courses with approximately 2,000 participants. The classes are free but members have to pay an annual fee of QR200, which gives them access to other benefits. “We are a reasonably sized family in which everyone contributes,” added the chairman, who takes photos as a hobby.
In addition to the courses, the Society, which was founded in 1984, holds workshops and field trips in Doha and outside, organising an exhibition after every big event. Until the end of the year, QPS will host approximately seven exhibitions. Based on the work of the members, the society brings out about three to four books a year on different topics, including the ships of the desert or camels. A collection of photos on camels was showcased at the Corniche recently.
“Every year, I tour an area of Qatar and make about 45 prints. Each one is 2x1 metres. My last exhibition, in January, started in Katara but I also took it to the Souq Waqif art centre and Dubai. Now we are discussing taking it to Doha International Airport for the summer,” he said.
The Society will have an exhibition in September or October about GCC heritage and civilization. The best photo from each country will later go into a book. “We have done a book before and found it very interesting to see how neighbouring countries see photography,” added the chairman. QPS is also planning the 12th edition of its Ramadan exhibition.Al Khulaifi emphasised that everyone was welcome to join the Society and could attend the classes without being a member. However, he explained, membership has bonuses, such as getting discounts from some shops and an ID card, in addition to getting to know people and communicating with other members.
The Society has a mix of photographers from different countries, most of them Arabs. Nonetheless, the organisation has recently started offering courses in English. “If there’s demand from at least ten people, we put a course together,” said the chairman.
Courses last about four days, with each class lasting one and a half hours. They address different topics, from basic photography or lighting to advance photography. “The best way to contact us is through our website or telephone,” said the chairman.
QPS has an archive, with the photographers holding the copyright to their works. “Depending on the season, people want the latest photographs, clients take the latest images. Whenever there’s a request, we ask the photographers for the images to show to our clients, which include Qatar Tourism Authority. Sometimes our client wants one specific item and we recommend one photographer to do the job,” explained the chairman.
Local photographers, including Al Khulaifi, have seen the landscape of the country change in the past few years. “Qatar is moving; I personally did a book about Doha before 1970 and the city has really changed,” he said.
The biggest photographic competition in Qatar is for the Al Thani award, and it attracts more than 7,000 participants from all over the world. Each participant gets a book of his or her photographs as a gift. This year will be the 13th year of the competition.
Among the biggest events organised this year by QPS is the World Press Photo 13 exhibition, which is on in Doha until June 5. “The competition has been organised by this nonprofit organisation since 1955. Here we have about 150 photos, including the winners,” said the chairman.
Other events in the horizon include an exhibition that will start today at Lagoona Mall in cooperation with Fifty-one East. On June 9, a Qatari artist will offer a course on architectural photography, and another exhibition, in cooperation with Katara, will bring to Doha the wonders of the Mosque of Cordoba.
