There is a little corner of Al-Rasheed Street where two old friends have been keeping watch over the world for more than thirty years.

One repairs watches, the other repairs glasses- their real business has always been keeping the rest of us oriented.


Every time I walk down that street and step through their doors, I am greeted with the same enormous smiles and invitations for tea.

It hardly matters what kind of day I am having. The moment I see them, something in me softens and perhaps that is one of the reasons I keep returning.

You come looking for a book, an old watch, a pair of glasses, some forgotten object from another decade- and instead you find people.

People who have been here long enough to become part of the landscape. People whose faces you begin to associate with the place itself.

For me, these two gentlemen are part of the memory of this street. And whenever I see them, with their familiar smiles and their inevitable invitation for tea, Al-Rasheed feels a little more like home.


I apologize for the man behind minding his business with his sandwich. I couldn’t miss that shot.


#streetphotography #baghdad #iraq