Vantage Point Sharjah was an open call for photographs of the emirate of Sharjah taken from across its length and breadth. Now, the results are up on show in the new Sharjah Art Foundation spaces.
Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi travels all over the world at an almost relentless pace in her multifaceted work as the president of the Sharjah Art Foundation but home is never far from her heart.
It was for this reason that, in May, she decided to open the doors to the public to submit their photographic visions of her home in a first-of-its-kind imitative called Vantage Point Sharjah.
“There are so many people living here and a huge interest in photography, so I thought it would be an interesting way to document it and to show the scope of the talent we have here,” she says.
Open call
From the end of May until the beginning of July, the Sharjah Art Foundation – the umbrella organisation that oversees the Sharjah Biennial and year-round community and cultural activities – welcomed entries from anyone and everyone and Sheikha Hoor began the process of selecting the best for “a carefully curated” exhibition.
“We really wanted to show the diversity of Sharjah,” she explains, “and to present a wide range of individual responses to the places, people and moments that capture the city as well as in the central and eastern regions of the emirate.”
The results
From beaches that could be in the Indian Ocean to the strange symmetry that sometimes emerges in industrial urban environments and a few powerful images of the Arabian bull fighting phenomena that seems to be unique to the Northern Emirates of the UAE, the images are nothing if they are not varied.
There is also a striking view of the Russian Church by night which, in just a single image, captures the plethora of cultures that inhabit the cultural capital of the UAE.
“I wanted to show things that you really wouldn’t expect in Sharjah,” Sheikha Hoor continues. “And there are some really beautiful images here.”
The participants
Some names next to the photographs are ones that you might expect to see in a photography exhibition in Sharjah.
Ammar Al Attar, an Emirati who has made a name for himself at a variety of exhibitions, took some strong images of old abandoned cars, and Sean Blake, an American who has been photographing a red chair at locations all over the UAE to raise awareness about bone marrow donors, was showing his work alongside the actual red chair. But there were some surprise entries, too, such as Diya Mazumdar, a 9-year-old girl whose photograph of a lone woman on the beach in front of Sharjah’s skyline showed great promise for one so young.
The exhibition
All selected images will be on display in the Sharjah Art Foundation Art Spaces in Al Mureijah in the Sharjah Heritage Area for two months. Although the open call was not a competition and there will be no winners, the platform of having their works shown in such a prominent public arena will no doubt boost the careers of the entrants.
At the opening reception, Amal, a film by Nujoom Alghanem, was screened in the outdoor cinema area and reaction to the images was strong.
• Vantage Point Sharjah will run until December 7 in Building GH, SAF Spaces, Al Mureijah, Sharjah Heritage Area
aseaman@thenational.ae
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
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Tips for avoiding trouble online
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- Do not publish or repost racist or hate speech, yours or anyone else’s
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Navdeep Suri, India's Ambassador to the UAE
There has been a longstanding need from the Indian community to have a religious premises where they can practise their beliefs. Currently there is a very, very small temple in Bur Dubai and the community has outgrown this. So this will be a major temple and open to all denominations and a place should reflect India’s diversity.
It fits so well into the UAE’s own commitment to tolerance and pluralism and coming in the year of tolerance gives it that extra dimension.
What we will see on April 20 is the foundation ceremony and we expect a pretty broad cross section of the Indian community to be present, both from the UAE and abroad. The Hindu group that is building the temple will have their holiest leader attending – and we expect very senior representation from the leadership of the UAE.
When the designs were taken to the leadership, there were two clear options. There was a New Jersey model with a rectangular structure with the temple recessed inside so it was not too visible from the outside and another was the Neasden temple in London with the spires in its classical shape. And they said: look we said we wanted a temple so it should look like a temple. So this should be a classical style temple in all its glory.
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