In the countryside, this how the bread is made, still far away from all industrialization.
In Fujairah, the smallest of the United Arab Emirates, you can observe what crude oil is able to move. My last stay in this Emirate was in 1986. I did this journey to find out how my past with Fujairah and the presence come along with each other. For me it was a startling experience. Never in my life I was able to observe change in such a conspicuous way, change that also had something to do with my past.
You see the old and the new coexist and collide dramatically, exciting and sad at the same time. In 2008 the construction of the oil refinery began and with it the change of a small closed world which is suddenly entangled in the world’s economy.
The people of Fujairah now belong to the beneficiaries of the crude oil, while the fish suffer from us, their most threatening parasites.
When I was in Fujairah in the mid eighties I didn't see the beauty of the landscape. I didn't enjoy watching the fishermen doing their work. I struggled while trying to cope with life in this remote muslim place. I felt like an outcast, watched, controled and despised.
All these emotions dispapeared over the years. Coming back allowed me to see this country through my changed eyes. Since the oil refinery tucks in along the shoreline of the Arabic Sea life for women got, seems so, easier, at least for me as a foreigner.
Construction and destruction are so close. Thrilling and saddening, both at the same time.
In the countryside, this how the bread is made, still far away from all industrialization.
Camels have still place to move and are not contained in farms on tiny pastures with their legs tied together.
Fishing, an old tradition and since long time the only source of income for the indigenous families.