UAE artists capture quiet poetry of nostalgic neighbourhoods in photos

Al Etihad

07-07-2025

8 July 2025 00:18
Mays Ibrahim (ABU DHABI)How do we hold onto the places that shaped us when they start to change, fade, or disappear altogether? Emerging artists in the UAE have turned to their camera lenses to freeze and capture fleeting moments – mapping the physical and emotional terrains of homes, neighbourhoods, and in-between spaces.For Fares Al Kaabi, photography became a personal act of preservation, documenting the quiet poetry of the neighbourhood he grew up in, where children scribbled on walls and families knew each other by name. Al Kaabi is displaying his work for the first time at the 'Cartographies, Revised' group exhibition at Manarat Al Saadiyat, which runs until September 1. His series features images, tiles and wooden doors, presented in a circular installation.
'Circles bring people together. I wanted people to walk around and feel surrounded by these moments and memories,' he told Aletihad in a recent interview.
Al Kaabi chose to document his neighbourhood using a phone, rather than a professional camera.'I'm not a technical photographer. For me, an image is about what you feel, not the camera settings. I just used my phone, but I think that's what makes my work stand out,' he said. 'I prefer to call them images, not photos, because anyone can take a photo; but not everyone can take an image. An image tells a story,' Al Kaabi added.Visual artist Hessa Alzaabi explored Dubai's fast-changing urban landscape through her photographs, which are also part of the 'Cartographies, Revised' exhibition. 'I interviewed residents and found that many had come to see community as something rooted in people, not places,' she told Aletihad.Her images layer interior and exterior views of homes in Jumeirah, combining architectural outlines with personal artefacts.'We pass by so much every day without really seeing it. And when it's gone, we think, 'what was there again?' I want people to slow down, to pay attention.'Yousif Albadi, another featured photographer, used his camera to draw attention to overlooked urban corners.'These are the places where memories happen. You may not know their names, but you remember moments there. That's what I wanted to highlight,' he told Aletihad. One image features a delivery man on a bicycle, an echo of the grocery workers he remembers from his childhood in Sharjah.
'Photography, to me, is appreciation,' said the artist who is also a physician. 'You don't photograph something unless you care about it. I want people to stop and see the beauty in the unnoticed, the unpolished, the simple.'