If you follow any of the who’s who of the UAE creative scene, chances are you noticed a mysterious silver package appearing on their Instagram Stories last week.
Inside the shiny wrappers – labelled with the motto "Life's a movie, show us your flick" – were disposable cameras.
These unassuming, vintage-inspired cameras are the brainchild of Mohammad Murad, 30, a seasoned Emirati entrepreneur who co-founded a creative agency and a supper club.
His latest venture, Flick, is a disposable camera and film-developing service that delivers Dh65 cameras to – and collects the film from – your doorstep, develops it and then emails you digital scans of the images.
The entrance to Murad’s office, nestled in the heart of Jumeirah in Dubai, is cluttered with cartons overflowing with cameras – units in the thousands, he says, to cater to the orders coming in – a mere 48 hours after the brand officially launched.
Murad was born and raised in Dubai. His passion for film photography began as a "creative escape" while he was working in investment and corporate banking.
"If I was having a rough week, I would load up my camera with film, go out and take pictures," he tells The National. "Film photography produces the most vibrant, beautiful, colourful shots you will ever see. And I love how spontaneous it is – how unreliable it is."
No matter what editing app or software you use you cannot recreate the flaws of film camera
Murad eventually left the banking world and turned his passion into a side hustle before growing disillusioned with photography as a profession and deciding to indulge in it purely as a hobby.
During stay-at-home restrictions in 2020, Murad deleted his Instagram photography account, returning to old-school, disposable film cameras to capture his memories instead.
“I felt like I needed that disconnect,” he says. “I didn’t have access to Instagram, which worked out well for me because it was one of the reasons this idea was born. It was then a case of seeing how I could bring my experience to the general public.”
Murad started conceptualising Flick last November and spent the next three months formulating his business plan while coffee shop-hopping – mainly between neighbourhood cafes amongst few and To the Moon & Back – before officially launching the website on February 8.
While disposable cameras were popular in the 1990s, they were soon replaced by hefty SLRs, pocket-sized digital cameras and, ultimately, the smartphone.
But, just as fashion has been touched by a nostalgic return to retro aesthetics, disposable cameras are resurfacing in popularity, says Murad, who likens the appeal of the device to that of a vinyl record player.
“It’s a fun accessory at events and at weddings, and it’s more fun when you’re creating your own content rather than someone coming and taking a photo of you,” he says.
Picture-taking, says Murad, has, in many ways, been stripped of the creative energy that the art form once held.
“Nowadays taking a picture has become so underappreciated that you almost forget what goes into it,” he explains. “Everyone is a photographer now, with their phone.”
Then there are the countless, and often dysmorphic filters that are available at the click of a button on our social media apps. These take away the authenticity that once fuelled the craft. The effects achieved by film photography, says Murad, are matchless – even though many apps and filters have been designed to mimic the aesthetic of film.
“No matter what editing app or software you use, you cannot recreate the flaws of film camera,” he says.
Flick fills a gap in the market that has largely gone unnoticed because of further advancements in photography, says Murad.
“The market hasn’t changed very much over the past 10 or so years – it’s predominantly Fuji and Kodak who are dominating the market and disposable cameras are not their main product."
Consumers are clearly focusing on more technologically advanced methods of capturing images. So what will digital-savvy millennials find appealing about disposable cameras, especially when they’ve become reliant on speedy “shoot, click, post” approaches to photography?
“I think instant gratification isn’t as gratifying as it used to be, to be honest,” says Murad. “Some of these iPhone and Android phones have better cameras than SLRs. Because it has become so common, people nowadays are looking for that extra bit of excitement, where they remember that they took an amazing photo and are looking forward to how it turns out.”
Flick’s contemporary twist on the process is its film-developing scheme, which allows users to stay in the comfort of their homes while their images are processed.
“I genuinely believe that you need to find a way to make someone lazier and that will be successful,” says Murad.
When customers have used up their film, they visit Flick's website and list the number of cameras they'd like to develop. The next day, a courier will collect the film from the cameras and take them to Filmoticon-Spacelab, which will send the customer their digital scans over email a few days later. Customers can also order prints or collect the negatives from the lab – which will otherwise be disposed of within 30 days.
Though the film-developing service is currently only available in the UAE, Murad has his eye on regional expansion, and is in talks with potential partners in Riyadh and Jeddah. The Middle Eastern creative scene, he says, is thriving, and the community is also gravitating towards old-fashioned modes of content creation.
"If you're looking at the more mainstream fashion industry, Gigi Hadid has a full-on Instagram page where she only takes pictures with disposable cameras," he points out. "So yes, it's making a huge comeback."
Each Flick camera costs Dh65, plus Dh45 for its film to be developed; flickcameras.com
How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers
Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.
It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.
The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.
Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.
Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.
He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”
A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.
Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.
Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.
Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.
By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.
Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.
In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”
Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.
She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.
Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.
Profile of Tamatem
Date started: March 2013
Founder: Hussam Hammo
Based: Amman, Jordan
Employees: 55
Funding: $6m
Funders: Wamda Capital, Modern Electronics (part of Al Falaisah Group) and North Base Media
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The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
MATCH INFO
Hoffenheim v Liverpool
Uefa Champions League play-off, first leg
Location: Rhein-Neckar-Arena, Sinsheim
Kick-off: Tuesday, 10.45pm (UAE)
Evacuations to France hit by controversy
- Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
- Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
- The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
- Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
- It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
- Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
- Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
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Company profile
Name: Dukkantek
Started: January 2021
Founders: Sanad Yaghi, Ali Al Sayegh and Shadi Joulani
Based: UAE
Number of employees: 140
Sector: B2B Vertical SaaS(software as a service)
Investment: $5.2 million
Funding stage: Seed round
Investors: Global Founders Capital, Colle Capital Partners, Wamda Capital, Plug and Play, Comma Capital, Nowais Capital, Annex Investments and AMK Investment Office
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Asia Cup Qualifier
Final
UAE v Hong Kong
Live on OSN Cricket HD. Coverage starts at 5.30am
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
More coverage from the Future Forum
Getting there
The flights
Flydubai operates up to seven flights a week to Helsinki. Return fares to Helsinki from Dubai start from Dh1,545 in Economy and Dh7,560 in Business Class.
The stay
Golden Crown Igloos in Levi offer stays from Dh1,215 per person per night for a superior igloo; www.leviniglut.net
Panorama Hotel in Levi is conveniently located at the top of Levi fell, a short walk from the gondola. Stays start from Dh292 per night based on two people sharing; www. golevi.fi/en/accommodation/hotel-levi-panorama
Arctic Treehouse Hotel in Rovaniemi offers stays from Dh1,379 per night based on two people sharing; www.arctictreehousehotel.com
BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh650,000
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%3Cp%3EAuthor%3A%20S%20Frederick%20Starr%3Cbr%3EPublisher%3A%20Oxford%20University%20Press%3Cbr%3EPages%3A%20290%3Cbr%3EAvailable%3A%20January%2024%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Brief scoreline:
Wolves 3
Neves 28', Doherty 37', Jota 45' 2
Arsenal 1
Papastathopoulos 80'
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
More on Quran memorisation:
