Glittering skyscrapers built on sand, Christmas trees taller than palm trees, mock Arab architecture, and a ski slope in the desert make the whole of Dubai a film set, its busy inhabitants actors playing in their own script. It was only natural for the burgeoning city to host an international film festival, giving me the chance to become a paparazzo—at last!

"What I have tried to do is involve the people I was photographing. To have them realize without saying so, that it was up to them to give me whatever they wanted to give me ... if they were willing to give, I was willing to photograph."
- Eve Arnold