I'm wondering what Mark meant to capture here - the reflection or the mansion in the background. These seem like two different pictures imposed on each other. Almost looks like something from a Holga camera.

Why am I curious? Because this photo was taken using one of the cheapest cameras on the market, and it's a masterpiece. If you can't see it closely enough, click on it. It's amazing what Mark managed to do with one shitty $2 disposable camera that was probably knocked around, x-rayed, and sat on before it ever got to Dubai let alone got back to the US.

This photo will never need Photoshop. Look at the guy's sleeve -- textbook chiaroscuro. This piece has an amazing sense of foreground and background. But there's an added layer of complexity when you realize that the "foreground" in this picture is actually our (and Mark's) background, aka the real guy who's actually creating the reflection. I can't think of any other way that this picture could have come through this way unless Mark was intentionally trying to photograph the reflection of the young guy and not the chunky Dubillionaire suite, and that just proves how subtle his eye is.

Then the miracle that the picture actually came out after it went through more airport security, had layovers in Amsterdam, Paris, New York, LA, all the while bouncing around with all the other cameras in a bright yellow bag with Arabic script printed all over it that I used a precariously weak ponytail holder to close. For some reason, a lot of our photographers ripped the paper and some of the components off of the cameras we gave them, and thankfully this didn't affect the photos either.

This photo is a miracle. I worried (often) that our film had been shot or ruined, or maybe didn't even work in the first place. These cameras were the 2-buck chucks of photography. Now, I realize they were harbingers of genius.

See more of Mark's photography of Dubai and some of our cameras at the Wallenberg 160 Gallery near the staircase.

Worlds of Dubai, or Dubai by Dubai

December 2010 - ongoing

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Thanks to Emma Webster and the 160 staff for making the gallery happen. Stay tuned for more Dubai by Dubai/Worlds of Dubai exhibitions this quarter...