Meet the Middle East’s youngest photographer

dubai — He was only five years old when he first started taking portraits and landscape photos. Now 10 years old, Metab Al Hadif from Saudi Arabia has taken portraits of some of the biggest Arab public figures.

Displaying photos with the likes of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, and Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, the Riyadhbased photographer said he dreams to represent the Arab world through his photos.

Wandering with a Nikon camera and a vest full of pins he has collected from events he attended around the GCC, Al Hadif said he wants to apply the idea of being the Middle East’s youngest photographer. “I want to tell the world our stories, Arab stories. But I want to tell them through my camera,” he said.

His mother told Khaleej Times she discovered her son’s talent after he used her phone to take photos. “Whenever I looked for him, I found him wandering by camera shops, checking out different lenses. This prompted me to buy him his first Nikon camera.”

Al Hadif currently has 70 photography-related certificates and 50 pins. His mother said “such a talent deserves to be supported by the Middle East to deliver his message to world”.

Al Hadif said taking portraits of public figures in the Arab world was his goal.

I want to tell the world our stories, Arab stories. But I want to tell them through my camera.” Metab Al Hadif, 10-year-old photographer