UAE | Heritage and Culture
Cafes are new venues for art promotion
Talented Emirati artists use coffee shops to showcase their work.
- By Fatma Salem, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:25 July 3, 2009
- Image Credit:
- Photography amazes me and every time I hold the cameraI feel there's always a new technique that I have left to discover, says Nasser Al Mansouri.
Dubai: Cafés in Dubai are growing in popularity as venues for showcasing new talented artists.
One such artist is Emirati Nasser Al Mansouri, whose photographic work was showcased at French coffee house, the Gerard Café.
"Newspapers publish their 'photo of the week', which has had an enormous impact on me and I have truly wished to one day get the opportunity to see my photographic work as the topic of journalism," Al Mansouri, 21, a new talent in photography, told Gulf News.
Gerard Reymond, owner of Gerard Café, told Gulf News: "Currently, Dubai is witnessing an observable wave of art in many domains. Therefore, I personally like to encourage them not by words only but by welcoming their artwork in my café to be seen, evaluated, criticised, appreciated and sold.
"In France, my homeland, we have many artists and they are seen on the streets and in coffee shops holding their tools of arts - whether this is the camera, paint brushes or paper with pencils for fashion designers and writers. Therefore, the owners of shops allow them to showcase their art in order to assist them getting known rapidly and encourage them to present the best they can," he said.
Al Mansouri enjoys the rich atmosphere of the daily details he sees in coffee shops; he likes to enjoy sipping coffee and allow his lens to shoot the ordinary details of the day.
"Sitting amid the crowd opens the horizons of inspiration to my photographic sense. Many daily details make me think how to edit that, seen through my lens," he explains.
"Having my photographs recently showcased in Gerard Café - a well-known coffee shop that is attended every day by a huge line of customers - is a great opportunity that has happened to me so far, and I consider such experience as an initial step of my interesting journey with the camera," Al Mansouri said.
"Photography amazes me and every time I hold the camera I feel there's always a new technique that I have left to discover," he said.
Al Mansouri adores the world of photography and feels it doesn't just involve photos and memories - it includes more details, where the experience of photographer meets with the event of photography and the scene or people involved, and ultimately produces unforgettable memories that document the history of generations.
"My camera accompanies me wherever I go -life contains crucial daily details, it might seem less than ordinary to most people. However, my eagerness urges me to place my lens from one of its unforgettable angles, and tell the story of the event from my own perspective," he said.
Two customers at the Gerard Café, Hassan, an Emirati, and his friend his Egyptian friend, Jamal, said: "It's a very good step to see an Emirati showcasing his artwork in a coffee shop. We think Dubai is not the city of shopping and commerce only but more, it's witnessing a new era of art and artists."
Al Mansouri continues that he likes to capture people and document the beauty of nature.
"The details of nature, its mystery, calmness, anger and unexplainable reactions inspire my artistic imagination. And the same thing applies to people as subjects as well - their features and expressions," Al Mansouri says, while admiring the photography of David Rose.
Al Mansouri attended courses in 2005 at Al Jazeera News TV Channel in Qatar to acquire more professional experience about documentary photography. In 2004 he had the chance to showcase his photographs under the umbrella of Global Village for almost three years. "I was asked to capture the daily activities of the village," he said.
Nasser values the courses he attended and is going to enrol in more to develop his talent.
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