Deira Polaroids featured in The National

A couple of weeks ago,

The National featured my Deira Polaroids series

 which included my thoughts on Deira (my favourite part of Dubai) and the upcoming changes taking place there, including the

recent anouncement of plans to move the dhows that have lined the creek for as long as I remember to a new wharfage

. A move that will lead to a dramatic change to the creek both visually and functionally. 

Unlike Polaroid images, which appear almost immediately, the development of photographic projects can often take some time.

When Hind Mezaina started taking her Deira Polaroids she was motivated, in part, by a desire to create an ode to her favourite neighbourhood, an area she not only associated with her own childhood but with the very essence of Dubai.

“To me, Deira is Dubai. It’s the Dubai I know and remember and it occupies a special place in my heart. I experienced it when I was growing up, when I used to go to the souk with my mother and we would visit family and friends,” the 43-year-old photographer, writer and blogger explains.

“Despite all the changes in Dubai it always seemed to be the place that was constant, but even that now seems to be changing.”

In the last six months, Mezaina has noticed an increasing number of empty buildings in the neighbourhood which look as if they are “ hollowed-out and ready to go” and now the rate of change in the area now seems to have reached a tipping point.

Read the complete article here

.

Thanks to

Nick Leech

for asking thoughtful questions and an article I was happy to read. More thoughts on Deira coming soon. Watch this space. 

www.thenational.ae/arts-lifestyle/photography/dubai-polaroid-collection-the-only-constant-is-change

www.thenational.ae/authors/nick-leech