SEEING SHARJAH
Photographer Subodh Shetty finds new subject matter amid the pandemic lockdown.
By Ben East
It was not a deliberate attempt to capture the unusual times in which we live, but Subodh Shetty’s image of the fog clearing over the cinnamon dunes of Mleiha took on an added poignancy during the pandemic. “We’ve all gone through that fog, perhaps we don’t know what’s in front of us,” he says. “But it will clear.”
Shetty’s striking shot was, however, a result of the pandemic. Travel restrictions forced the photographer to turn his gaze close to home. “I’d never shot in Sharjah, but once we were allowed out, I spent months in its deserts and mountains,” he says. “They’re incredibly beautiful.” This image, and a small collection of others, won Shetty a #SeeSharjah photography prize and led to his work being exhibited at this year’s Xposure International Photography Festival in Sharjah. The image had called to him. “I had to get up at 3am, climb Fossil Rock in the dark and fog, and get out my drone,” he says. “It was hard. But I felt like I needed to take this shot.”
