Qatari Camel Trainers

QatarTravelPhotographyPhotojournalismPersonal

Mar 11

Written By AB

Location: Zekreet, Qatar, Year: 2016, Photographer: Ajani Charles

Project Summary

This series of photographs documents Ajani Charles’ time spent with a group of camel trainers in Qatar’s Zekreet desert during a month he lived and worked in the country as a producer.

While in Qatar, and through his production company, The Ark Media Group, he oversaw a branding project on behalf of Direct Trading and Contracting, a former Qatar-based civil construction company, balancing corporate responsibilities with independent photographic fieldwork.

Like many of the company’s employees, the trainers he met in Zekreet were migrant workers from across the Middle East, as well as Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and other regions, contributing their labour to Qatar’s rapidly developing economy.

Ajani was struck by their humility, generosity, and disciplined work ethic as they trained camels under relentless desert heat and vast, open skies.

He was equally captivated by the camels themselves; their physical power, quiet intelligence, and extraordinary resilience within one of Qatar’s most iconic and unforgiving landscapes.

Together, these photographs reflect a convergence of labour, migration, tradition, and endurance, capturing a rarely seen dimension of life in the Zekreet desert beyond the polished surfaces of urban Doha.

Qatari Camel Trainers

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