Mirage City
Published in the Photography Journal. In just 50 years Dubai has risen from desert wasteland with enormous ambition. From a small fishing port to an expanded creek in the 60s to the ever growing urban clusters of gleaming towers. The skyline rears up in an early morning UV mist, expanding daily in a vaulting flurry of cranes and frenetic construction. How is all this expansion possible? How is this city expanding across the Sahara instead of burning away in the scorching heat? The mirage like impossibility of Dubai is part of the attraction and many places in Dubai seem to defy possibility or rationality. Using a specially converted camera I set out to photograph in infrared some of the wild ambition, simulation and allure of this strange city risen out of inhospitable dust.