Royal Photographer Noor Ali Rashid has documented pieces of the UAE's history in about 3 million images
On the face of it, Noor Ali Rashid has a great story to tell. As a young rebel - of sorts - he arrived in Dubai from Gwadar province in Pakistan in 1958 armed with $100,000 and a camera.
The money was from his father to ensure that Noor Ali would set up a business and find pursuits other than photography. The camera was Noor Ali's and ensured that his favourite pursuit would not be neglected.
"I really tried to help my father and the amount of money he gave me was not a small amount back then. But, I just couldn't," says Noor Ali today shaking his head, almost apologetically.
Almost because though his obsession upset his father, in the process, Noor Ali gained the love, respect and friendship of the future rulers of the land. "They embraced me with such warmth that I have no regrets at all," he says emphatically.
Sitting in his Sharjah penthouse, Noor Ali, who is 77, walks from room to room - there are many rooms - pulling out a little piece of the UAE's history that he has documented.
On the walls hang large portrait photographs of the late UAE president Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the late UAE vice-president and prime minister Shaikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum and other Supreme Council members. All taken by Noor Ali.
Each photograph out of the three million that Noor Ali has to his credit reveal the rare privilege that the leaders of the UAE have extended to this native of Pakistan.
"Shaikh Zayed called me a son of this land and though I became a citizen of the UAE much after I arrived, in my heart I always felt a connection to the land and its people," he says.
He is officially the Royal Photographer to the President and Members of the Supreme Council. "I have the papers to show that," he says, though the elderly gentleman with the camera hung round his neck needs no introduction to UAE nationals and long-time residents.
Such is his reputation that guards don't question him, heads of state and other VIPs are introduced to him and, well, pretty much everybody knows him by face, if not by name.
"Even this familiarity that I enjoy with the public is because of the treatment and respect I was given by Shaikh Zayed, Shaikh Rashid and later on by their sons.
"If I was ever stopped by guards in the presence of Shaikh Zayed, he would immediately call out and ask for me to be allowed in. 'He is one of us', Shaikh Zayed would say," Noor Ali recalls.
Having watched the present leaders of the UAE grow up and even photographed them on their various vacations and travels, Noor Ali has many an anecdote to share, but is careful about how much he shares. "I don't want people to get jealous over the closeness I have enjoyed with our leaders," he says seriously.
Diplomacy
Whenever a foreign dignitary or celebrity visited - and visits - Noor Ali can still be spotted scurrying around trying to get his piece of UAE diplomacy. As a result of just being there, he has gone fishing with kings, swum with Shaikhs and presented many a memento to his idols.
Given his Pakistani roots, Noor Ali's political connections with his country of origin are fairly strong and there are many photos of delegates and personalities such as the Bhuttos, Zia ul Haq, governors and celebrities from Pakistan.
On whether he misses Pakistan, Noor Ali pauses for a long time before answering. "I'm able to go back when I wish. I'm extremely grateful for being accepted as a UAE national. And as any humanitarian would, I too send money back to Pakistan to try and help make things better for the country and its people," he says.
The advantage, he says, of being in the UAE and a part of the UAE is that he has been able to cultivate wonderful relations with Indians as well.
Noor Ali's favourite memory with an Indian is that of meeting former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi for the first time. "I love him," he says kissing a photo of the premier that Noor Ali took when Gandhi visited the UAE.
"Before I could be introduced to him, Rajiv came up to me and said 'Noor Ali what a pleasure to meet you'. I was naturally surprised to know that someone like him even knew me, so I asked him. And Rajiv said 'Noor Ali, the whole of India knows you. We see you every time in the Sharjah matches,'" he recalls.
Age doesn't deter him as he was even present at this year's cricket showdown between India and Pakistan in Abu Dhabi. "They are all my friends," he says of the players and other celebrities and whether one chooses to believe him or not, Noor Ali has the photos to prove it.
The problem now is what happens to all the photographs that now share space with Noor Ali, his wife and maid in their large penthouse and another apartment in the same building.
That is Noor Ali's primary concern for now. "A few years ago, the villa that the photos and other things of mine were in was broken into. The thieves didn't steal any of the photos. Only expensive watches and jewellery, but in the process of looking for these things more than 1,000 pictures were destroyed," he says.
In the digital era, Noor Ali still prefers to stick to prints and has a collection of cameras to help in his profession.
"Mechanically German cameras are very strong, but optically the Japanese ones are best for the lenses. I use film because no matter what the digital cameras can do, the image is much better and I'm more confident of them.
"With digital cameras the photographer tends to check after each shot. In the chase for excellence, what happens is that you miss a key moment," he says.
Having captured key moments and special moods of many heads of state, Noor Ali definitely knows what he's talking about.
As we return to talk of the future of his collection, he says there have been a number of offers to take his work, archive them and share them with society at large. But he hasn't taken a call on what his course of action will be.
On the one hand, one of his daughters (he has three sons and three daughters) has taken the initiative to save her father's photographs by buying a scanner and starting to catalogue them.
"She even employed two staff, but the thing is, I have to be there to tell them details about each photograph," he says. And that's rare, considering his zeal for taking pictures shows no sign of abating.
There is one thing that Noor Ali is absolutely certain of and it's that his family should continue to benefit from his lifetime's time and energy spent on photography.
"My children are doing well today, mashallah, but I would like to make sure that they get something for a rainy day and even if they don't need it then we can always use it for charitable causes."
"I won't be leaving my children anything in the form of houses or cash or assets. But these photos are my legacy and I would like to hope that they will serve them some purpose later," he says.
"When people are alive they are loved and remembered. It's when they are no more that keeping their memory alive is most challenging. Look at Mahatma Gandhi. India has forgotten him," he says.
Though he doesn't explicitly spell it out, it is obvious that Noor Ali, too, worries that he should not be forgotten as just another photographer.
Having come a long way from the aspiring photographer from Gwadar to a professional who has contributed to many a coffee table book, Noor Ali has progressed from the days of wearing stylish European suits to proudly wearing his national dress today.
However, he is concerned that in writing the history of the country, the perspectives should not be skewed and narrow.
"There is yet to be a thorough documentation of the UAE. We have seen many photos showing the changes of the landscape and some books show the western society during the 1950s but they leave out the Asian people. What I hope to see during my lifetime is a comprehensive book on the land and its evolution," he says.
Noor Ali would definitely like to be involved in the compilation of such a book and in the meantime is scouting around for a writer to pen his biography. He does, after all, have quite a story to tell.
