Ali, artist from Syria, turns old picture into artistic piece

Reporting by Faris Rifai

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Ali Ramadan, a Syrian artist who works on colouring old black and white pictures by using computer and particular software, to turn them into live images as if they were taken today.

Ramadan, the technician in Mechanics who lives in Saudi Arabia told Zaman al-Wasl that he had coloured hundreds of old, rare and special images of Damascus, Aleppo, Hama, Homs and other Syrian cities.

Moreover, he had coloured pictures of cities in Iraq, Algeria, Palestine and Egypt. Added to images for Arabic leaders and prominent figures in Arabic history.

“The story started when I coloured a picture for a foreign lady wearing a very nice dress looked like she had just bought it, then I coloured the street and the scene around her which was for Liverpool city in England, that experience inspired me to start colouring old pictures of Syria, by which I discovered the amount of distortion in the history and buildings presented in media like Bab al-Hara series”

Ramadan started searching in the internet for rare and unique pictures, he found lots in the Library of the Congress which was rich in old picture of Damascus and Syria, and the world in general. He chosen sort of good quality images to colour them in a way suited the real situation when the picture was taken, added to particular colours he added from his artistic imagination to give the picture special identity.

In regard to the source of information he relies on to colour pictures, he confessed that 99.9% pictures he coloured was relying on his feeling and imagination, he did not read history about the image or visited the same place in recent days.

One of the most images touched his heart was al-Nasr Arc in Damascus, was taken in 1920-1930, when the city was still full of trees and green areas where trees covered the whole street, while the eye-catching traditional clothes people were wearing gave the picture special taste.

He has started working in colouring videos, in a technique used in Hollywood only.
He had by using the laptop coloured a short video of the well known film "Maqalib Ghawar”, produced 1968, but he is trying to develop the technique, hoping it would be honour for Syria and the Syrians.

Ramadan, 27, originally from Hama city, studied Mechanics in the Institute of mechanics in Damascus. He is working in Saudi Arabia in advert and media field.