With the ‘consumption’ series, I attempted to make a survey of the UAE’s landscapes in the process of anthropomorphic change. Not so much the established urban areas, but those places on the fringe. I tried to capture the spatial balance of the scenes. When trying to show human impact on the environment it is tempting to try to exaggerate the scale of the impact. Where possible I tried to be objective in this aspect of the depiction. This is mainly because I am trying to find an understanding of these proportions; to assess how justified my anxiety is when I view natural places being consumed by development.

In my home country abandoned places tend to be hidden by their environment much more quickly than in arid lands. Plants and wildlife thrive in many neglected urban places. In the UAE, the scars we inflict on the landscape appear to endure for longer and are only likely to be disguised eventually by abiotic processes such as sand drift. I have a stronger instinctive alle- giance with natural places than anthropomorphic ones, and it seems to me that when a decision is made to alter a natural environment in arid landscapes it should be taken with even greater care and yet quite the reverse seems to be the case. Perhaps because of the paucity of life in these places it is felt they matter less.

While I lived in the UAE I missed the green landscapes of my home country, but having finally returned there, I find that I now equally miss the wild landscapes of the UAE. Living in the Eng- lish countryside feels, by comparison, like living in a manicured garden; one can appreciate the beauty but must only walk on the denoted paths. By comparison, I feel more free, and somehow exhilarated in the desert and mountains. The opportunities for solitude are greater.