Maeve Kelynack Skinner

Shafeeq Khalaf Al-Sharqi

Bahrain Photographic Society Chairman Shafeeq Khalaf Al-Sharqi was interested in the creative arts from as long as he can remember, taking up photography and painting from an early age. He later studied interior design at the College of Fine Arts in Cairo, Egypt. He won his first award for photography in Bahrain in 1980, and has won several more international honours since. One of his images was chosen in a list of Best 1,000 Pictures in the World for 2010 at Trierenberg Super Circuit photography awards, and he scooped up as many as nine awards for his work in 2012. He was also awarded the E.FIAP title in 2013. His favourite photography themes are nature and people.

Haider Akbar Rafiey

Haider Rafiey fell in love with photography when he was still a child. When his father refused to buy him a camera, he began going to the market every evening after school, wheeling people’s groceries home in a barrow so he could earn enough to buy one for himself. He still has the Agfa box camera he bought with that money in 1954, but his tools have evolved since then and now include Nikon and Minolta digital SLRs. Haider’s preferred subjects are nature as well as traditional homes in Bahrain. He takes great pride in being able to teach young people the art of photography, and he is a long-standing member of the Bahrain Arts Society.