Cultural bonds in photography

Photograph by Nik Wheeler from the '70s depicts the Temple of goddess Isis at Philae

Initially published as a newsletter, the magazine's aim has been to link the company'sÊUS offices with "the field"--primarily Dhahran, in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. But asÊoil took on greater global importance andÊAramco grew with the oil boom of the 1960s and '70s, the publication grew intoÊa bimonthly educational magazine. Historical, geographical and cultural articles helped the American employees and their families appreciate an unfamiliar land.

The photographs at the exhibition have been placed decade-wise, from the 1950s to the present. And through this, the whole presentation becomes a photographic demonstration of the theme of the display.

A black-and-white photograph by an unknown photographer depicts a caravan of Bedouins on their move crossing the 1729-kilometre Trans Arabian Pipeline--well-known as Tapline--which connects the new oilfields of Saudi Arabian Eastern Province with the Mediterranean. Phoenicia's Eternal City by Khalil Abou El-Nasr presents the city of Sidon in February 1958. The accompanying article called it "a city of laminated civilisations…where you can have your car filled with gasoline at a sparkling new service station while watching archeologists uncover the ruins of an ancient king's stables."

By the 1960s, the pictures mostly become colour presenting the mysterious-looking Cairo at sunset, cablecars hovering between the mountain and the sea at Jounieh, the "Jewel of Lebanon", Istanbul--the "Queen of Cities" etc.

One photograph by Nik Wheeler from the '70s depicts the Temple of goddess Isis at Philae in danger as the waters of the Nile rose along the face of the temple after the construction of the Aswan High Dam in 1970. A total of 21 endangered monuments including the famous statues of Ramses II at Abu Simbel were removed from the site. Only the Temple of Isis and the Temple of Trajan at Philae had to be moved after they were partly inundated. The project required the construction of a cofferdam around the two temples, which was then pumped dry. The temples were then moved, stone by stone--all 40,000 stones--to higher ground nearby.

The 1982 photograph of Katrina Thomas captures the Lebanese singer Fairouz who came to limelight after the death of Umm Kulthoum in 1975. With the Lebanese civil war, her popularity soared further, for her voice seemed to capture the spirit of the time. Her velvety voice, elegiac and angelic, carried with it the full weight of the Lebanese tragedy, and yet inspired her audience to envision her homeland made whole again.

One of the very recent photographs project the famous desert caves of Saudi Arabia that were created during the rainy epoch that lasted from 30,000 to 8000 years ago. The moist climate left limestone outcrops in central Saudi Arabia riddled with sinkholes. Some remain valuable water sources today, while others lead down to spectacular, largely unexplored dry caverns such as "The Dome" in Dhal Shawyah.

The exhibition runs till January 11 from 3pm to 8pm.