Michael Schnabl

People of Dubai

Whenever I come to Dubai, I plan at least one day for street photography. The special thing about this city is that only 15% of the people living here are actually locals, the majority of the population are immigrants and workers from the rest of the world. Nevertheless, this conglomerate of different ethnic groups and religions works surprisingly well and you can find an incredible number of interesting people and motifs. I love photographing people on the street, in shops, just in their natural environment. In most cases, I ask permission when photographing people on the street. Nevertheless, most of the people here, especially workers from India and Pakistan, continue to behave as if there were no camera. This often results in images that look random, with the advantage that you have enough time to build up the composition of the image.