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Earlier this month, I noted that the September issue of Fast Company features a 15-page photo essay by Lauren Greenfield on Dubailand, but at the time, we weren’t able to post the images. The embargo has passed now, though, so I’m reposting the item, complete with links to the article.
Dubailand is a $66 billion project that—instead of being the world’s largest collection of theme parks and mixed-use development, as intended—has been decimated by the economic downturn. Lauren takes us on a kaleidoscopic journey through this manmade wasteland in a series of portraits and evocative environmental photographs that demonstrate both what might have been and what the developers’ dreams have become.
In both cases, there’s a surreal quality to the images. Actual snow skiing at the mall. A sagging palm tree that has put its parched head down in defeat. An abandoned Porsche covered in a thick layer of dust, in which someone has drawn the word “Loser.” So-called “debt refugees” in despondence and a clutch of ex-pats loading up on bubbly as if fiddling while Rome burns.
Fast Company’s story is called “Exodus,” with the subhead, “Not long ago, Dubai emerged as a symbol of crazed civic ambition, a once-quiet desert burg suddenly superheated by cheap capital. That’s over.” Fast Company has posted a slide show here, and Lauren has posted the entire article at her website, along with tearsheets from the July 2009 issues of Das and Zeit magazines, which also featured her Dubai photos.
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