Adel Al Quraishi (Adel Quraishi) is a Saudi Arabian photographer, born in Al Khobar in 1968. He grew up fascinated by the photographic medium and experimented with various cameras from a young age and into adulthood. In 1991 he decided to concentrate more seriously on photography after encouragement from his friend and mentor, the Brazilian photographer Humberto da Silveira, who helped to nurture his talent. Quraishi photographs a range of subjects and is accomplished in capturing stunning landscapes, but his true passion lies in photographing people. He finds portraiture to be an especially deep discipline: there being always more to the subject that what you first see. He enjoys the challenge of diving into this process of documentation. Quraishi photographs both with analogue large format cameras and with Canon digital cameras.

Adel Quraishi was asked to produce photographic portraits of the eight remaining ‘Guardians’ of the Prophet’s Mosque (Al-Masjid al-Nabaw) by the current Governor of Medina, to be exhibited in the February 2014 exhibition entitled ‘Letters and Illumination’ in Medina (an exhibition depicting the history of the city through calligraphy and photographs dating back to the 19th Century). He is the only man to have been permitted to photograph these subjects, three of whom have since passed away. At the time of the photographs, these eight men were the last of their generation, a tradition that once numbered in the hundreds. As they are the last of the Guardians – and are not to be replaced – the photographs are unique. The history of the Guardians or eunuch servants of the Prophet’s mosque in Medina is recorded as dating back to the mid-12th century; in the present capacity they are the keepers of the keys to the Prophet Muhammad’s burial chamber in addition to the keys to the minbar (the mosque’s pulpit). This group of men hail from Abysynnia. They wear traditional formal wear with embellishments, outfits usually reserved for state occasions. Quraishi’s sensitive handling of his subjects is evident in the emotion that is conveyed by his sitters, while his technicality shines through in the radiant composition of the photographs. Rendered on a large scale, it is impossible not to be moved by the connection between viewer and subject when confronted by the works.