List of photographers in Saudi Arabia before 1950
Here a list of people who are known to have made photographs in Saudi Arabia before 1950 and links to their biographies, if available, and between [ ] a year that they were active in Saudi Arabia, followed by a source and/or an institution which has work in its collection. The abbreviations used for the sources and institutions can be looked up, and possibly linked, at the bottom of the page.
Or go first to a magnificent 1907 photoalbum by H.A. Mirza and Sons by linking to a photo of one of the gates of Medina in the Qatar Digital Library and originally made on 15 October 1907. At the Time the city was under Turkish control and there lived a maker of Arabian daggers with poetry inscriptions, to bring back from the Hajj, who signed his name Izzet: the collection of the Metropolitan Museum: accession numer 31.35.1a-c. Or perhaps the oldest colour photographs (1948) of king Abdul Aziz al Saud and one of Jeddah's gates.
Abdullah (Harry) St. John Philby (1885-1960) [1937 - RGS]
A.L. Holt (1896-1971) [Saudia, RGS]
Alice, princess of Albany (1883-1981) [1939 - Saudia, KAPL]
Bram Drewes [1952 - NMW]
Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje (1857-1936) [1884, LU]
Cornelis Adriaanse (1896-1964) [1930 - NA]
Daniel van der Meulen (1894-1989) [1926, NMW]
D.G.W. van Voorthuysen (1888/1889-1942) [1926, LU]
Don M. McLeod [1939 - Saudia]
Elsayed Ahmed O. Saim Aldahr [1930s, NA]
F. Clemow [1913, Saudia]
Gerard Evelyn Leachman (1880-1920) [1912 - Saudia, RGS]
George W. Rendell (1889-1979)[1937 -RGS]
Georges Antonius (1891-1942) [1925, Saudi]
Gerald de Gaury [1935, Saudia, RGS]
Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) [1916 - Saudia, Oxford]
Hallidjian [1908, Saudia] *
Harold Corsini [1947, EM]
Helene Rogers [1918, AL] **
Harold Richard Patrick Dickson (1881-1959) [1937 - Saudia, Oxford]
Hendrik Freerk Tillema (1870-1952) [
J.B. Mackie [1924 - Saudia]
L. Naretti/G.P. Devey [190 -, Saudi, RGS]
H.A. Mirza & Sons [1907 - QDL]
Maynard Owen Williams [1948, AL]
Muhammad Assad [1925 - Saudia]
Norman Mayers [1928 - Saudia]
Percy Cox (1864-1937) [1905, Saudia]
Raphael Savignac (1874-1951) [1917 - Saudi, ]
Richard Maunsell (1868-1947) [1907, RGS, NGC]
R.E. Durham [1947 - Saudia, Aramco]
R. McGrath [1922, Saudia]
Robert Ernest Cheeseman (1878-1962) [1923 - Saudia, RGS]
Robert Landry [1943 - GBF, Saudia, ADA]
Samuel M. Zwemer [1910s, NGC]
Thomas F. Walters [1947 - Saudia, Aramco]
Wilfred Thesiger (1910-2003) [1947 - Saudia, Oxford U.]
William H.I. Shakespeare (1878 - 1915) [1911 - Saudia, RGS]
William Mulligan (1918-1992) [1939 - Aramco]
Sources:
Books:
Angelo Pesce, Makkah, a hundred years ago, London 1986.
Humberto Martins da Silveira, Saudi, Riyadh 2015.
Collections:
AL - alamy: search.
Aramco - Collection Saudi Aramco.
Arriyadh Development Authority.
EBAF - École biblique et archéolique française de Jérusalem.
EM - George Eastman Museum: search collections.
KAPL - King Abdulaziz Public Library, Riyadh.
KITLV - Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies: image collection search.
LU - Leiden University Digital Special Collections: search.
NA - Nationaal Archief, search.
NGC - National Geographic Creative: search.
NMW - Nationaal Museum voor Wereldculturen: search collections.
Oxford - Middle East Centre St. Anthony College.
Oxford U. - University of Oxford.
QDL - Qatar Digital Library: search.
RGS - The Royal Geographical Society: search collections.
Notes:
* This name is unclear in the RGS collection. Perhaps it simply refers to the office of the Turkish governor: Hamidiyya.
** Early pictures of the Saudi royal family with this name to it as photographer. Probably copies from originals by another photographer by a Helene Rogers working for an Aramco Magazine.