As ever, I am behind the times! This morning I came across the work of Iranian photographer Arash Ashoorinia quite randomly – and subsequently learnt that his work is regularly published in many international publications, and he has won awards. His photographs are amazing - check out his site for more. I also found an interview with him on Global Voices.
I just chanced upon this site which sells vintage postcards. They classify them both by subject matter and by country; there are just a few from Bahrain, but plenty from other countries in the region (I haven’t looked outside the Middle East yet). Some of the titles are as interesting as the images themselves, telling you a lot about who was taking the photos and what they chose to see.
‘Persian tailor smoking a qalyan’ - which I assume is the same as shisha.