‘Bahrain Life is about telling the story of our time’

PHOTOGRAPHER Phil Weymouth has taken a stunning collection of images and has agreed to share with GulfWeekly readers a sample of his work now on display on a newly-created Bahrain Life website.

He believes his photographs help capture the essence of the kingdom at work and at play, highlighting its local and expat communities and the cultural honeypot and hive of activity of a modern kingdom at the start of the 21st Century.

Phil said: “I really enjoy the people, the workers. It never ceases to amaze me what people do for a living - in fact I spend far more time talking to the people in my images than taking their photos! Bahrain is such a microcosm of people … faiths, professions, all trying to do the same thing, make a living, and make a better life for their family and their children.

“Bahrain Life is about telling the story of our time. There’s no agenda, no position, it’s simply a clear lens on the everyday life of everyday people. It’s been an eye opening and inspiring experience for me. I hope it is for other people.

“When you get over the age of 50 you suddenly realise that 100 years is not such a long time. Maybe 100 years from now people will look at these photos in amazement of how life was in Bahrain at the start of the 21st Century. It’s a photographic narrative of life today - it is this moment in time.”

In his younger days he worked in a variety of fields, literarily, as a ‘jackroo’ (farm hand) and tree surgeon and went on to become a chauffeur and even a cross-country ski instructor. However, his passion for photography, which started in his school years, never went away and he made it his full-time professional career, in his home state of Victoria, with Rural Press, an agricultural publication.

He soon started freelancing for large daily and weekly newspapers in Melbourne, and his work was recognised and snapped up by international press agencies including Bloomberg and Getty Images. He went on to work for the travel publisher, Lonely Planet as a photographer and photo editor and was also assigned to provide images for several books in Asia and the Middle East.

“There were always cameras around my family. My father gave me one when we drove from Tehran to Kabul in the mid-1970s. In Kabul we climbed to the top of one of the surrounding mountains,” said Phil.

“I remember there used to be a large old cannon that would be fired at mid-day. I lined the camera up, the cannon went off and I jumped up in fright, producing one very blurry photograph! We lived in Tehran for 10 years in the 70s and we were always going on amazing family adventures.

“Dad taught me so much on these trips, visiting some amazing places throughout Iran which gave me that sense of adventure and curiosity about people.
 
“Like many photographers, as a kid I would spend hours looking through National Geographic magazine at the stunning images published.

“I have a lot of photographer friends around the world, doing so much amazing work. I am constantly humbled by them.

“I first came to Bahrain after the evacuation from Iran in 1979 before coming back 10 years ago. It was time to settle down after travelling for so many years and there was opportunity in Bahrain.”

The Bahrain Life project has developed over a period of almost two years. “I have always been welcomed into people’s place of work, even their homes, sometimes for a hot cup of tea, always for some laughter,” he explained.

“Some shots I’ve captured are just luck, for example, a guy rode past me on his horse along the beach, just perfect. Others, I’m sitting with someone for 30 minutes trying to understand what they do and just take one photo, one frame, which just tells their story as it is, an authentic reflection. There is so much to this island that many people don’t see.”

Some of his work already has an historic feel about it, perhaps because of the use of traditional black and white imagery alongside colour offerings. “There was no great plan to do the work in black and white (B&W). I started my career shooting B&W with the newspapers and have always loved B&W photos – there just seems to be more of a raw, basic quality to the outcome.”

The Bahrain Life initiative has received backing from Unisono, an internationally-awarded branding and communications agency with offices in Bahrain and the UAE.

Phil said: “The partner in the project is Unisono, who have been outstanding. They worked with me to really understand the philosophy and potential of Bahrain Life - what it stands for and what we want to achieve.

“It was an eye-opening, inspiring process and resulted in the Bahrain Life brand which Unisono helped develop along with the website. The work speaks for itself - it captures the spirit of Bahrain life and of Bahrain itself. That’s what I was looking for.”

Fuji Cameras through Abu Issa Brothers Trading Company Bahrain has also supported the initiative by offering Phil an ‘amazing supply’ of small E-X2 cameras for the project. “The camera is so suited to this project, small, easy to use and lightweight,” he said.

There are plans for a major launch event for Bahrain Life after the summer but until then GulfWeekly readers are invited to ‘take a little bit of Bahrain with them’ on their holiday travels, via social media.

* Check out the Bahrain Life website by visiting  www.bahrainlife.org and The Bahrain Life Facebook address is https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bahrain-Life/429715960463234 Readers can also sample Bahrain Life on Instagram by visiting https://instagram.com/bahrainlifephilweymouth/