Time Frame: Any pot you like, so long as it’s for coffee

If you needed a new coffee pot, this dallah shop in Dubai’s souq would have been the place to go.

This image was taken by Anita Van der Krol, a Dutch photographer and the wife of a dredging engineer, who lived in the city between 1975 and 1985 and has been a regular visitor since.

It forms part of an exhibition of her work, The Beginnings of a Nation, which runs at the Empty Quarter Gallery at Dubai International Financial Centre until the end of December.

Van der Krol, who was in the city for the exhibition’s opening last week, says that the Clock Tower and the spice souq are about the only landmarks that remain unchanged from her time here. Even the abras that cross the creek between Bur Dubai and Deira have been motorised. She recalls the old road that left the city towards her home at Jebel Ali Village: “It was two lanes, often covered with sand and with dead camels and broken down cars at the side.” Still, she says: “I always felt the energy in Dubai - and I still feel that energy today.”

* James Langton

The Beginnings of a Nation runs until December 31, 2014. open Sunday to Thursday from 10am to 7pm. Admission is free. For more information visit www.theemptyquarter.com