Picturing Life in Arabia
- Community
- Annuitants & Former ExPats
Author: Molouk Y. Ba-Isa, Arab News
Released 14 March 2006
ARAB NEWS (SAUDI ARABIA), February 21, 2006:
Victor and Toni Jo Friedmann
Photograph Contributed by Victor Friedmann
Victor Friedmann worked for Saudi Aramco in Saudi Arabia for 19 years before taking early retirement in 1994 and moving, with his wife, Toni Jo, to Durham, North Carolina, where they now reside. Among his many interests, Friedmann was always an avid photographer. An outdoorsman as well, Friedmann always took his camera with him on his camping trips in the Kingdom. Over the years he snapped many stunning photographs. Friedmann has now digitized many of the best slides from his extensive collection.
The slides were digitized at 4000 dpi enabling him to produce prints up to 12x18 inches. Friedmann has posted low resolution versions of the “best of the best” on his website, www.openeyefoto.com, where they can be viewed and also ordered for purchase. His Saudi Arabian collection is much larger than what is shown on the website and those images can be seen by e-mailing Friedmann at order@openeyefoto.com. Those who can make it, are invited to the opening reception of his one man photo exhibit, “Lens On The World,” March 5, 1-4 p.m. at the Churton Street Realty Art Gallery in Hillsborough, North Carolina. The show will run the entire month of March.
Friedmann said that his philosophy in taking photographs of people was always to follow two rules: Respect and familiarity of the local environment. He studied Arabic and after two years of instruction was able to carry on a “decent but simple conversation.”
“The ability to speak Arabic was key in my ability to photograph people. I also wore Saudi dress and often carried my photographic equipment in a shopping bag,” Friedmann explained. “In taking close-ups I always asked for permission and, surprisingly, was always granted permission very graciously.”
Friedmann thinks fondly of his time in the Kingdom.
“I remember vividly one scene in the mid-1970s. I took my family in our four-wheel drive Suburban to see the sunset from a remote beach between Dhahran and Alkhobar. When we arrived, another Suburban was parked there with a Saudi family,” he reminisced. “We parked next to them with the windows rolled down. The man, after a few minutes, offered us some kebabs that his family were eating. I accepted and said in Arabic, ‘Shukran, inta karim (Thank you; you are generous).’ He answered, ‘Allah karim (God is generous).’ I was touched by the man’s sincerity, his generosity and humility. I think this story sums up my experience in Saudi Arabia — a land of generous, welcoming, warm people, handsome in every way. My photographs portray the Saudis exactly the way I feel about them. I wish all of you could come to see my exhibit.”