The project visits a photo collection of important families in Sudan’s history. Families have played an important part in keeping Sudan’s history alive since the successful war against the Ottoman-Egytian rule in Sudan, and the British from 1881 to 1895. Sudan became was on of the first African countries to become independent in 1956. During this period the family collected photographs of important events, visits, and historical moments. This is an ongoing project led by Ala Kheir, a Sudanese photographer and archival activist….

These collections are from the Abbas, Aboud and Jubara families. Abbas Habib Allah. 1950-2020 was born in 1950,  at 15 years old he started to photograph with the family camera. He began his career as a trainee in the ministry of culture in Khartoum and progressed there to become one of the important photographers in the photography unit. Abbas documented many important events for the government. However, his photography changed a lot after returning to his hometown “Alobied” where he started photographing family, friends, and neighbours. Creating an intimate collection of Alobied culture in the 1970s-90s.

At 15 years old he started to photograph with the family camera. He began his career as a trainee in the ministry of culture in Khartoum and progressed there to become one of the important photographers in the photography unit. Abbas documented many important events for the government. However, his photography changed a lot after returning to his hometown “Alobied” where he started photographing family, friends, and neighbours. Creating an intimate collection of Alobied culture in the 1970s-90s.

Aboud graduated from the University of Khartoum as an architect, but his journey with photography started long before that. During high school in the 1940s , Elsharif and his brothers started taking pictures with the cameras they saved money to buy. This addiction continued throughout his life leaving behind a big collection of photographs of Khartoum and his travels from the 1950s-1990s. Esharif family at the moment is working on digitizing and preserving the big collection that was left behind.

He was also one of Sudan’s first photographers, capturing for example the raising of the flag of the newly independent country on January 1, 1956.  Jadalla is more known for being a cameraman and a film producer. In a five decade career, he produced many documentaries and photographs that are important references in Sudan’s history. Jadallah’s images captured historical moments in Sudan as well as his passion to football and the early years of the Omdurman sports complex which is the birthplace of many football clubs in Khartoum. While Jaddalla Jubara is known to be the godfather of Sudan’s cinema, he always was a photographer as well. Many of his photographs are published in different collections and platforms.  After he passed away in 2006, his archives were moved to his daughters and parts of these archives have not been showcased before.