Muscat: Fadhel bin Abdul Wahid al Hamdani, a veteran Omani photographer who worked for Oman Arabic Daily and the Observer, for more than 40 years passed away at his residence in Barka on Friday.
Fadhel, who captured some of the rarest sights in Oman history, leaves behind a rich tradition of photography among the local populace and scores of disciples spread across the region.
Fadhel was a pioneer in embracing digital archiving in the Sultanate and was an inspiration for budding shutterbugs. Khalid al Maharbi, a journalist and an author, remembers him as a fatherly figure who mentored him throughout his life. "Fadhel al Hamdani was like a father to all of us in my genre as we could approach him for any matter. The feeling of him being not there for us is heartbreaking but we cannot deny the destiny," Khalid said.
"I worked for 10 years with him as a photographer for the two newspapers and it was his help and support that groomed me since my beginning at the paper," remembered another photographer Faisal al Balushi. "It was the idea of Fadhel to archive the photographs of the 70s as they needed to be preserved for the generations to come."
"Fadhel was loved by one and all and he would world very closely with the journalists who sought his assistance for any coverage," said photojournalist Amer bin Abdullah al Ansari.
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