The Photolibrary of Kurdistan was established by Chris Kutschera in 2008 as a digital library dedicated exclusively to photographs of Kurdistan and the Kurdish people, in Kurdistan and around the world. Its goal was to archive and preserve for current and future generations a continually expanding photographic collection that depicts the country and people of Kurdistan, resulting in the largest searchable resource of its kind.
Our rich collections of images are gathered from various regions where Kurdish communities are located, and obtained worldwide from public collections, private donors, photo agencies and contributing photographers. In many cases photographs were loaned for digitisation and then returned to the original photographers or collectors, with full copyright retained by the creators or owners. The collection spans a broad period and covers diverse subjects.
In 2023 administration of the Photolibrary of Kurdistan was passed by Chris Kutschera to the University of Exeter, where it is run as part of the Kurdish Digital Archive within the DAME (Digital Archive of the Middle East) project.
All the images on the Kurdistan-Photolibrary are available for download for private use only, as low-resolution watermarked images. Permission must be sought for any other usage, and where appropriate, requests will be forwarded to the photographers or owners.