A caravan of camels casts shadows in a desert in Oman.
Photographer: Mustafa AbdulHadi
Date: February 15, 2020
Orientalized as a sandy, sweltering, underexplored landscape still awaiting plunder, the Middle East is anything but. Disney’s Aladdin (one of my favorite movies, I admit) might be the best known offender.
But deserts do exist, and AbdulHadi captured an almost surreal scene. The golden sand in this photograph softens the exceedingly harsh conditions of the desert biome while the purple-grey sky transports the viewer to another world.
The tire tracks in the bottom right tell me this setting is not necessarily all that remote. To me, this makes the scene feel accessible — and honest: humans leave their mark everywhere.
Mustafa AbdulHadi is an award-winning photographer from Bahrain whose work so far has highlighted traditions, customs, and daily life in many parts of Asia and the Gulf. His galleries can be viewed on his website (here).