The Heat of a Summers Day

When asked to describe my upbringing in the United Arab Emirates, I am pulled in different directions as to how to answer such a question. I have often found myself unable to pick one route of interpretation to explain, turning to photography and image manipulation to contextualize my experiences of growing up in the United Arab Emirates. The UAEs presence on multiple global platforms over the past decade has flourished, reshaping my experiences with the rapid changes that this also brought along to daily life. I have become invested in recreating the urban landscape of the UAE throughout the early and mid-2000’s that stay true to my memories. Through using images that I have taken during my time there, I had found that one of the best ways to recontextualize a space that was changing rapidly was through the use of collage.