CNN Arabic interviews Andrew regarding his conceptual photography series ‘Inverted UAE’, shooting in Dubai, and questions of color perception. Original article in Arabic, with English translation below.
CNN Arabic Interview
About This Project
Photographer reveals a bright world embraced by Dubai Towers
Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) — Colorful mazes? Or close-up micrographs taken of various objects? When you look at these pictures, it can be hard to tell exactly what you’re looking at. However, if you are a resident of Dubai, or someone who has visited the city before, you will discover that these photos document sights you have already seen, even if you do not recollect it.
In 2019, New York-based art and architectural photographer Andrew Prokos visited the UAE, which gave him the opportunity to document a series of images that would later form a colorful photographic series called “Inverted UAE”.
A different spectrum of colors
Over the past year, Prokos received an invitation from the UAE Embassy in Washington and Meridian International to be part of an architectural delegation to the UAE. In an interview with CNN Arabic, Prokos said, “It was very interesting, as I had intended to shoot in Dubai for years, but was never able to get there on my own.” After spending 8 days exploring the country with the delegation, which included various photographers, architects, writers, visiting art galleries, and landmarks such as the Burj Khalifa and the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the photographer decided to stay in the country so that he could shoot on his own.
The inspiration for the “Inverted UAE” series came while filming in one of the locations he planned to visit, as he explained, “I found the close-ups of the modern buildings we were visiting interesting.” Looking at the photos he had taken, Prokos decided to resort to viewing photos in their negative rather than positive state. The photographer said: “This was a big decision and a risk, because it was a conscious effort to take the photos away from the familiar and into an unfamiliar territory that might make some people uncomfortable.” However, the photographer emphasized that displaying images in their negative state not only reveals “a different spectrum of colors, but allows the viewer to see the image without any of the expectations we place on normal positive images”.
Through his photographs, one will see buildings such as the Deira Tower in Dubai, which was built in 1979. The curved facade of the building includes balconies with red Islamic decorations, which gives the image its beautiful sky-blue color in its negative state, according to the photographer. His pictures also include the various towers along Sheikh Zayed Road, as well as the Emirates Towers, Burj Khalifa, and Burj Al Arab. Since he started his career in film cameras, Prokos has indicated that he is an expert when it comes to negative photography.
“I’m very interested in eliciting a visual and emotional response in the viewer, and this is a way to do that,” Prokos said. “Personally, I’m very attracted to color, and I’m not afraid to use bright colors in my work,” the photographer confirmed. It is possible that people assumed that his series resulted from the use of special effects, but the photographer confirmed that it was in fact the result of “inverting the images to their complementary colors”. Therefore, “familiar colors become surreal, but still correspond to the colors in the positive image.”