Jalal Abuthina’s unseen side of Dubai - in pictures
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Dubai: Behind the Scenes takes the reader on a visual journey through the neighbourhoods of Deira, across Dubai Creek and into Bur Dubai. Courtesy Jalal Abuthina -
“I’m trying to communicate everyday reality and normality as opposed to the fabulous, which seems to be the only kind of representation which exists right now,” said Abuthina. From Dubai: Behind the Scenes. Courtesy Jalal Abuthina -
“If a tourist wants to learn more about the city and a deeper insight into the daily realities of the city, they have no access to that, if they aren’t in touch with anybody who is local or has local connections. There’s nothing about contemporary life in Dubai which is a portrait of the fabric of Dubai’s society or the everyday reality of the city,” said Abuthina. From Dubai: Behind the Scenes. Courtesy Jalal Abuthina -
Abuthina captures a traditional Indian kushti wrestling match outside the Hyatt Regency hotel in Bur Dubai. From Dubai: Behind the Scenes. Courtesy Jalal Abuthina -
The books offer an insight into the kind of small-scale businesses and low-income communities that scrape a living, unseen by tourists, behind the luxury hotels, soaring office towers and architectural set pieces of the ‘New Dubai’. From Dubai: Behind the Scenes. Courtesy Jalal Abuthina -
Memories of Satwa is a portrait of the ramshackle, low-rise neighbourhood that nestles between the upmarket suburb of Jumeirah and the towers of the Sheikh Zayed Road, much of which has already disappeared since Abuthina took his photographs. From the book Memories of Satwa. Courtesy Jalal Abuthina -
“In the last four years, about 50 per cent of the Al Sha’abiya neighbourhood in Satwa has been demolished, and there are images from the part that has gone in the book,” Abuthina said. From Memories of Satwa. Courtesy Jalal Abuthina -
Abuthina had to edit his way through more than 4,000 images, some of which were shot on 35mm film as long ago as 2002, to arrive at the final selections for the books. From Memories of Satwa. Courtesy Jalal Abuthina -
The Best of Dubai Shop Names is a somewhat tongue-in-cheek collection of the kind of misunderstood, mistranslated and often incomprehensible shop signs that delight expats and are such a feature of small businesses throughout the Emirates. From the book The Best of Dubai Shop Names. Courtesy Jalal Abuthina -
Aimed firmly at the tourist market – they come pre-translated into English, Arabic and Russian – Abuthina hopes that they will appeal to visitors who “understand the difference between the tourist destinations and the more cultural aspects of the city." From The best of Dubai shop names. Courtesy Jalal Abuthina -
By focusing relentlessly on the shop frontages and shop signs, Abuthina’s book reveals them for what they surely are, a form of unregulated and unruly folk art that, for all of its apparent crudeness, provides the streetscapes they adorn with the kind of urban vitality that is so noticeably absent from Dubai’s newer shopping areas. From The Best of Dubai Shop Names. Courtesy Jalal Abuthina -
Abuthina has documented the city he calls home, a fast-disappearing older city with a very different urban experience and one that has honed his photographic vision and taught him how to see. From The Best of Dubai Shop Names. Courtesy Jalal Abuthina -
The true value of Abuthina’s images comes from their status as an archive of a city undergoing rapid and seemingly irrevocable transformation, and as such they are reminiscent of the photographs of Paris taken by the 19th century French photographer Charles Marville. From Dubai: Behind the Scenes. Courtesy Jalal Abuthina
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