FirstLook: Qubbat al-Sakhra, ca. early 20th century

Considered one of the greatest achievements of early Islamic architects, craftsmen and artists, the magnificent interior of the Qubbat al-Sakhra (Dome of the Rock) was built between 688 and 691 ce on Jerusalem’s Haram al-Sharif by order of Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik. Its intricate patterns reflect Hellenic, Roman, Byzantine and Sassanid influences, together with bands and medallions of Arabic calligraphy.

To create this unique symmetrical image of the hemispheric ceiling dome, photo restorer and artist Kelvin Bown painstakingly stitched together nine digital scans made from stereoscopic negatives originally taken between 1898 and 1920 by photographers commissioned by the American Colony of Jerusalem.

Produced as a limited edition print, this is one of many historical images of the Middle East that Bown has restored using modern techniques. The results bring renewed clarity, depth, detail and presence to early photographs, illuminating aspects of past ways of life that express the beauty, harmony, diversity and sustainability of the region.

See more of Bown's work at www.reawakeningthepast.com.

I Witness History: I of the Storm

Written by Frank Holt // Illustrated by Norman MacDonald

“You have marveled at me since beyond memory, at once dreading the flash of my blinding light and eager for my return. My brilliance was recorded and sung about; my rumbles of warnings, in pithy Latin on a North African stone inscribed—’FVLGVR CONDITV’--‘Lightening was buried here.’”

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Berlin’s Transcultural Jam

Written by Ken Chitwood 
Photographed by Fabian Bennecke

A musical wave has been swelling for a decade in the German capital, which one local analyst now calls “the city of choice for a new generation of cultural talent from the Middle East and North Africa”—part of the greater demographic shift that has made people of Arab backgrounds Berlin’s fourth-largest ethnic-identity group. In street jams, clubs, studios, concert halls and online, new mixes of musicians are blending notes and ideas into genre-bending, transcultural fusions. “What we as artists in Berlin can do is tear down the borders in our head and invite others to do the same,” says musician Jamila Al-Yousef.

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Creatives

FirstLook: Mi Leu, Ma Villo, Provençal (My Eyes, My Town, in Provence)

Photographs by Rebecca Marshall

One day I encountered a photo of a man looking through a car window as sunlight reflected his view of the nearby cityscape. Soon afterward, I began this portrait series, of which four images are shown here, in my hometown of Vence, near Nice, France.

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