For those of you that missed this week’s all too brief exhibition of the work of the French news photographer, Raymond Depardon at the Paris-Sorbonne Abu Dhabi, here is a last chance to appreciate the collection.
Depardon visiting the country in February 1968, at a time when the seven emirates were still known as the Trucial States, but also when the first concrete steps were being taken to create the United Arab Emirates. He captured many scenes from everyday life in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, including this one of what is probably the capital’s first attempt at traffic management.
The location is down on what is now the Corniche and the junction with Airport Road or Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Street.
This was the busiest part of the old city, next to the customs house, a row of banks and the original Abu Dhabi souq.
A few years early this stretch of sand would have been a much quieter place of pedestrians and a few donkeys.
But the arrival of oil revenues was transforming a village into a city and with all the embryonic elements beginning to develop - a traffic policeman, a roundabout and a taxi for hire.
The rest would follow.
* James Langton
