Regional concerns for stock agencies in the Middle East

Features

Regional concerns for stock agencies in the Middle East

By Celia Peterson October 17, 2006

Abouttheimage recently reported about the acquisition of CDI The Image Library, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, by the Photolibrary Group. To most of the world, Dubai and the Middle East represent a mysterious place, often difficult to understand. The feature story below, by Celia Peterson, the Director of ArabianEye, a specialist stock photo agency focusing on the Middle East and Islamic Culture offers an insider’s perspective on the special challenges facing our colleagues in that part of the world.

Commercial photography in the Middle East can border on the surreal. One minute you think you are breaking new ground, the next you are told your work is out of line. Knowing your creative limits in a society like the UAE, which censors the Internet and practises a high level of self-censorship in professional life, can depend as much on intuition as anything else.

I recently wrote an article that praised an outdoor visual campaign for a leading mobile phone brand. Several weeks later, to the surprise of most people within local marketing circles, the campaign was pulled because it was deemed insensitive by the authorities.

Having to judge prevailing social attitudes makes running an image library in the UAE challenging, to say the least. But nobody ever said it was going to be easy, and there is a certain pioneer spirit to be had when you are part of a new industry in an emerging market.

The Middle East is a grossly misunderstood region, and one of the many gratifying things about running ArabianEye is that it is an opportunity to promote a more positive and realistic view of the Arab world, sharing the perspectives of both expatriates and local people themselves.

The media and advertising industry often portray a cliched image of the Middle East, and that is partly down to creative underachievement and restricted budgets. Either you find blissful families enjoying a milk product in a gleaming home, or a veiled woman crying next to a bombsite. ArabianEye has tried to explore a balance.

The UAE’s spending power is attracting more and more international photographers, and the fast pace of change that goes with a growing market is a boon for all. Unfortunately, licensing frameworks still have plenty of catching up to do. The Middle East is a magnet for piracy, and there is the story about the salesperson that tried to sell a fellow stock library one of its own Royalty-free CDs. Sad, and true.

While there is a lack of regulation on the one hand, there are awkward restrictions on the other. The UAE government is considering whether to outlaw publishing images of people taken on the street, and rules governing acceptable editorial photography in the region remain hazy. Photographing women is a sensitive issue and demands caution and courtesy.

ArabianEye works with all types of photographers, but primarily reportage specialists who highlight issues that may otherwise go unnoticed. Moslem dress, a topic that endlessly fascinates people in the West and which is causing a new political storm in the UK, is just one example.

The chance to share new perspectives on a vital part of the world is another positive to go with the obvious commercial benefits of working in a thriving market. So there are plenty of rewards to be had from running an image library in the Middle East, even when life gets uncomfortably surreal.