Phoenix Rising: The United Arab Emirates, Past, Present & Future

Few nations on earth have experienced more complete and far-reaching change over the past few decades than the United Arab Emirates. Today a land of six-lane highways and glittering streams of motorcars, where space-age cities of ivory-white and crystal glass emerge like a mirage from the haze of desert and sea, this federation of seven ancient Emirates - Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ras al-Khaimah, Umm al Qawain, Ajman and Fujairah - is not only the world's fourth largest oil-producer, but also its richest state per head of population, and the new commercial hub of the Middle East.
Yet only fifty years ago, when oil-exploration started, there was no electricity, no plumbing or telephone system, not a single public hospital nor modern school, no bridges, no deep-water harbour, no metalled roads, no more than a handful of cars and scarcely a building more impressive than the crumbling mud-brick forts and watchtowers of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Where now high-rise stacks, gilded domes and minarets tower over wide boulevards, where cascades of water are flaunted with conspicuous opulence, and where acres of shrubs burgeon on the desert shore, stood sleepy settlements of reed, coral and mudbrick houses, sweltering on sand spits and islands in the most ferocious summer heat.
1996 is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the United Arab Emirates. In Phoenix Rising, the photographer Werner Forman explores in a series of superbly evocative images, themes of continuity and change in a country with a long and ancient history, taking as much delight in its abundant treasures and old ways as in its dynamic new architecture and drive towards the future. Michael Asher's text provides an admirably clear account of the history of the region, the resilience of its people and of its phoenix-like ability to reinvent itself in adversity.