"Bread and circuses": photographer filmed the life of Dubai's rich

Nick Hannes, a Belgian photographer, winner of the Magnum Awards photo contest in the category "Documentary Cycle—, took a series of photos about the life of the rich in Dubai. He called this series "Bread and Circuses".

"Dubai is amazing and controversial. Some people adore him, others criticize him. I don't want to impose my opinion on those who see my photos. Let everyone draw their own conclusions in accordance with their experience and ideas about life," says Nick Hannes.

"The rapid transformation of Dubai from a dusty fishing town of the 60s into an ultra-modern metropolis fascinates both fans and critics," Hannes writes in the description of the project. Many of his photographs make you think and look at them from a different angle.

"90 percent of Dubai's population are expats," Hannes said. — In this heterogeneous group, I decided to focus primarily on the rich segment of society. I went to where the representatives of this group used to spend time: to nightclubs, beaches, theme parks, hotels, shopping malls." Thanks to artificial islands and buildings that copy the world's attractions, the whole of Dubai can be seen as a kind of theme park for the rich, but Hannes tried to look deeper.

As the photographer says, the source of inspiration was the book "Capsule Civilization" (The Capsule Civilization) by the Belgian philosopher Lieven de Coter. De Cother "describes an extremely divided society: the first world is an archipelago of protected islands, or "capsules", where life is pleasant, and the second is everything else, the abyss of chaos and poverty."

In this, the photographer sees parallels with his project. "The process of urbanization in Dubai is strikingly reminiscent of the phenomenon of "encapsulation". Locally, there is segregation between expats and migrant workers. At the global level, the Emirates can be considered as one big "capsule", a safe haven in the unstable Middle East."

Hannes emphasizes that he does not support any particular position with his pictures. "I don't have a monopoly on the truth, and I don't give answers to questions. Rather, I ask them - about inequality, about the viability of society, about the "economization" of public life, about authenticity, about greed. I hope this will encourage someone to introspect."