According to My Modern Met, the Dubai night photos are the latest works in the Glow series by Xavier Portela. This is a photography project that collects photos of famous cities in neon lights at night. He has made the most of architectural and lighting elements to create a series of vibrant Dubai photos at night.
Dubai harbor, where luxury yachts dock, is surrounded by glittering buildings.
Xavier shared that he took this photo series of Dubai at night after participating in the Xposure International Photography Festival in Sharjah, UAE in 2019. "I confidently affirm that Dubai is a very suitable place for the Glow project. I don't have much time to explore the whole city and the weather here is really hot. Hopefully I can come back here with another project in the future when the weather is cooler," the photographer expressed.
Next to the winding avenues and bright car lights are high-rise buildings, the most famous of which is the Burj Khalifa (828 m) - the tallest building in the world today. Coming to this project, you can see Dubai from above at the observation deck, explore the food court, shopping, ice skating rink, mosque, ocean park, water music shows...
With its dense network of avenues interwoven with skyscrapers, Dubai's night scene is truly the perfect backdrop for Xavier's photographic intentions.
By focusing on the headlights and taillights of vehicles, Xavier's works still stand out with two shades of pink and blue that help "cool down" this city.
The main technique used by the Belgian photographer in this project is long exposure. The streaks of light that stretch across the streets and on the surface of the lake show the dynamism of Dubai at night.
Before the photo series in Dubai, the Glow series included many other photo series that Xavier had traveled to and taken with similar techniques in Kobe (Japan), Taipei (Taiwan), Bangkok (Thailand), New York (USA)...
At night, millions of bright lights combined with the constant flow of traffic create an overwhelming scene, as if this city never sleeps.
Despite only being in Dubai for a short trip, Xavier still managed to find time to take elaborate photos. The new set of photos was published on his social media pages from the end of April 2021.
