Photographic Encounters along the Gulf Coasts

Photographic Encounters along the Gulf Coasts is a permanent display of 165 photographs and archival documents in Gallery 1 of the Photography Gallery, Sharjah Art Foundation, in Al Manakh, Sharjah. The foundation dates its installation views 2025.

The late 19th- and early 20th-century images are glass slides made from photographs of people, places and activities along the Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean coasts. They come from the collection of His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Member of the Federal Supreme Council of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Sharjah. The foundation writes that the glass slides and the magic lantern, "considered a predecessor to modern slide projectors", offer insight into photographic innovations of the period. Among the images is one titled Busra [sic] creek.

No photographers are named. The foundation writes that "as the photographer, date and location for each image have not been conclusively established, this exhibition presents the collection as found artefacts." Some images carry titles, but it is not clear who added them or when.

The foundation presents the display as a starting point for research into how photography translates and interprets history, and writes that the images engage with the region "as a nexus of trade and connection". On 8 November 2025, James Onley of the American University of Sharjah gave a talk on the collection, Visual Archives of the Gulf, in the Photography Gallery.