People of Ras Al Khaimah

We're back from the summer hiatus, and last week we kicked off our 2018-19 lecture series with a visit from Anna Zacharias and Jeff Topping, who shared the story behind their beautiful book of stories, ‘People of Ras Al Khaimah.’

Anna describes the book as “full of superheroes,” many of whom are her friends and neighbors. Originally Canadian, she grew up in RAK, having arrived with her family ‘for a few years’ and stayed on—a story that is so common to many of us in the UAE. She and Jeff, an American photojournalist, met on assignment for the National, and this incredible labour of love is their best attempt to represent RAK in all its diversity.

They selected people from the four topographies of the emirate—sea, desert, mountains and cityscape—and all ages and backgrounds. There are sea captains telling stories of shipwrecks off the coast of Oman, honey collectors, former Pakistani champion wrestlers, goat herders, and many entrepreneurs, from hairdressers to chai wallahs.

Anna sketched out four themes that emerged from their three years of interviews:

1)     Women working outside the home: In the days of the ‘freej,’ or interconnected, interdependent neighborhood, women supported and looked after each other, and they worked hard: harvesting wheat in the mountains, goat herding barefoot, and managing the household while men were at sea for long periods of time.

2)     Gulf Culture: despite reports to the contrary, Gulf culture is very robust, incorporating and adapting to technological changes.

3)     Globalization: the Iranian beauty salon owner who brought her Persian flair to women’s wedding fashion, or Malak Al Karak, who popularized the idea of karak chai being a drink for any time of the day or night, both epitomize the influences that flow into and become part of Emirati culture.

4)     The migrant story: all of the people who had moved from elsewhere started out staying for a short while only, then stayed a lifetime, just like Anna herself.

Jeff said, quoting Bill Moyers, “creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous,” and that is truly what can be seen in the portraits. They have a quietly epic quality, just like their subjects, and Jeff spent considerable effort creating the perfect juxtaposition of light, setting and personality to make them sing.

You can see his photographs of more RAK superheroes on their Instagram, @peopleofrak.

Don’t forget to sign up for this year’s membership by downloading the form on our website at https://enhgauh.tidyhq.com/ and bringing it to the next lecture!