Jette Bang - Portrait of Qatar's Bedouins

In 1959, Jette Bang documented life among Qatar’s Bedouins through photographs and footage for the film Bedouins (1962). With her impressive background as one of Denmark's leading photographers, Bang had already gained recognition for her portrayals of Greenland’s indigenous population through both photography and film. Now, she turned her artistic eye toward the Middle East, spending over three months alongside ethnographer Klaus Ferdinand, following two nomadic tribes in Qatar's desert landscape.

Bang demonstrated a remarkable ability to build trust, and she described how the women's community helped her gain access to private tent areas typically closed to outsiders. Her photographs possess not only ethnographic value but also convey a profound intimacy that poetically captures everyday life among the Bedouins. Taken with a classic Rolleiflex camera, Jette Bang’s timeless works hold larger narratives about culture, relationships, the Bedouin way of life, and humanity.