Oilfield Supplies Centre established in 1963 by order of HH Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum
Cecilia Green's husband Byron Green established and managed OSC
OSC was reputedly financed by Mohammed Al Fayed
OSC operates today under different ownership
Image by OSC
1960s Dubai was a radically different place from Dubai of today.
Oil had only just been found. Dubai had yet to receive an income from that oil.
There were few roads, a limited health service, no domestic fresh water and electricity supply was unreliable.
Cecilia Green arrived in Dubai in 1963 accompanying her husband, Byron Green, who was to establish Oilfield Supplies on Dubai Creek.
Cecilia was a keen photographer and started taking photos of a Dubai that was soon to change.
Joy Ashworth compiled 200 of Cecilia's Historic Photographs into a Limited Edition Book "Images of the Emirates 1963-71"
Joy collaborated with Cecilia Green to produce "Images of the Emirates 1963-1971. They selected 200 of Cecilia's now rare Images of the Trucial States for this unique book. Excerpts from Cecilia's letters to her family in Sweden provide a narrative to these unique images.
"Images of the Emirates 1963-1971" was first published in 2007. H.H. Sheikh Butti Maktoum Bin Juma Al Maktoum provided a foreword to the book.
Very few places in the world have experienced the huge changes that occurred in the Emirates in such a short time. It was fortunate indeed that Cecilia Green, a woman who first went to Dubai in 1963, not only experienced the evolution but illuminated it in her extraordinary photographs. This limited edition book (each book is numbered) presents her photographs of the UAE together as a collection, capturing the places and the people in the moments of change. More than 200 black and white and colour images record people and everyday scenes as well as landmark events and occasions. The narrative is taken from Cecilia's letters home to her family in Sweden. Many of the photographs are now of historical importance as they document a world that has all but disappeared. In ever changing Dubai, these remain a record for future generations.
These historic images by Cecilia Green show a Dubai that exists only in memories today.
You can see a small selection of photographs from "Images of the Emirates 1963-1971 here....
