The images of Captain William Shakespear are some of the earliest and finest photographs of what is now Saudi Arabia and Kuwait
FROM THE RGS-IBG ARCHIVE
The photographs of Captain William Shakespear (1878 – 1915) are among the earliest and finest images of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Today these remarkable original negatives and prints, along with his manuscript mapping, are housed in the Collections of the Royal Geographical Society, providing a window on to the people and places of the region at the outset of the 20th century.
Based in Kuwait as British Political Agent between 1909-1914, Shakespear’s aim was to map the Arabian Peninsula, complemented by his unique documentary photography. He carried out seven explorations in eastern and central Arabia, achieved an ambition to visit Riyadh, and developed a role as advisor to the then Emir of Riyadh, Abdulaziz ibn Saud, later the young ruler of Saudi Arabia, who acquiesced to his friend and advisor’s request to take the first portrait photograph of the future king.
In the field, he used a large plate camera adapted to take panoramas and a ‘No.1 Panoram-Kodak’ which was portable and relatively simple to operate, with the added advantage of storing several panoramas on a single film roll, perfect for use in desert conditions. Later, Shakespear also used a small folding camera, ‘the Ensignette’, made by Houghtons, then the largest camera manufacturer in Britain. It took film roll and was immensely popular: robust and rust-proof, it was also advertised as ‘A Soldier’s Camera’ and its wider popularity led to a new breed of amateur photographers, known as the ‘Pocket Snap Shooters’.
Photographic equipment was an essential part of Shakespear’s kit, including a Kodak Tank Developer, which he used to process negatives, often in less-than-ideal conditions, facing extremes of temperature and limited water supplies. The results were remarkable and place Shakespear high in the pantheon of early photographers documenting life on the Arabian Peninsula.
Exhibition: ‘The Other Shakespear’
Hosted at the Society and curated by MIA, an exhibition of photographs, maps and other ephemera chronicling the adventures and explorations in Arabia of Captain William Shakespear, drawn largely from the Collections of the Society.
10 May – 6 June 2022 (for opening times please visit: www.rgs.org/events).
The RGS Picture Library
The Royal Geographical Society Picture Library is an unrivalled resource, containing more than half a million images of peoples and landscapes from all over the world. The collection holds photographs and works of art from the 1830s onwards and includes images of exploration, indigenous peoples and remote locations.
