Dark City: Beauty of Dubai Skyscrapers Captured in Monochrome

Mysterious, dark, and foreboding, Sajin Sasidharan’s black-and-white photography gives a vision of Dubai that looks closer to Gotham City than the glossy destination of vacation brochures.

Sasidharan’s series on his adopted city — he moved to Dubai from his native India in 2010 — was chosen as one of the featured exhibitions at the recent Xposure photography festival in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.This adds to a growing list of honors that includes prizes at the Fine Art Photography Awards and the Moscow International Photo Awards.

Sasidharan is drawn to shooting architecture above other subjects, and he finds Dubai an ideal setting.”When I look at a building as a subject I seek out shapes, lines, patterns, silhouettes, textures and try to find a rhythm in the structure,” he says.”Dubai is one of only a few locations worldwide where iconic architecture is not only encouraged, but actively pursued.

As long as it is eye-catching it seems that anything goes, from the sublime to the outrageous, and sometimes a combination of the two.”In this series, the photographer takes on many of the city’s most iconic landmarks; from the futuristic Emirates Towers — seen shrouded in mist — to the Meydan Bridge, and the mighty Burj Khalifa skyscraper.