• #Arabian_Transfer

    “Arabian Transfer” is a photographic series highlighting the transitory condition
    of six cities in the Arabian Peninsula – #Abu_Dhabi, #Doha, #Dubai, #Kuwait_City, #Manama,
    #Riyadh – representing them as places of passage for cultures and people.
    “Arabia” is historically a mythical place of the Western imagery, of exchange with the
    East, but in recent decades cities like Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha have appeared as new
    worlds, new global epicentres made possible by a condition of hyper-mobility of people,
    cultural models, images, finances, goods, transferred from one place to another.
    These cities are mostly populated (as well as physically built) by expats from
    around the world, and today represent a living laboratory in which the local identity
    aspirations are measured against Western models and the traditions and cultures
    of origin of the inhabitants. In the title, the word “Transfer” refers to a place where
    travelers can spend some time, but can’t be a final destination, a condition that
    happens to the large majority of people living in those countries.

    These photographs were taken between 2010 and 2017 in the margin of other researches
    on spectacular architecture in the Gulf. In this series I wanted to avoid the sublime
    and grotesque character that photography tends to acquire in representing the most
    spectacular aspects of these landscapes; but I also sought to give substance to the
    abstract imagery of the new skylines – which remain in the background as the New York
    by Dos Passos to which the title refers.
    In these images I have favored a more intimate and direct relationship with the cities
    and their inhabitants, which took place mainly by walking and spending a lot of time
    on the streets and in urban areas, without hiding the difficulty of the metropolitan
    condition. Through everyday habits, gestures and faces, I tried to bring out a sense
    of presence, showing how these cities are actual places where people live, and where,
    in the extreme and paradoxical form that characterizes them, it is possible to
    recognize the global contemporary condition to which we ourselves participate.

    https://www.michelenastasi.com/portfolio/arabian-transfer
    #photographie #Michele_Nastasi #péninsule_arabique #Arabie #villes #urban_matter #villes

    ping @albertocampiphoto