ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a visual narrative of the Arab Gulf city through a photographic essay. These images were largely part of a mapping project of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, carried out through Urban Research Lab. Increasingly people urban imaginaries of world cities are formed through media accounts, travel reports, movies and more recently social media posts. Appearing clinically clean it is only a space to pass through while admiring the sparkling and glittering skyline from a distance. The very act of standing at a street corner, sitting on areas of grass near major roads, playing cricket in a parking lot, or congregating around the entrance to an alleyway, is a way for migrants to claim a part of the city as their own. The shopkeeper is in his own world, unaware of his surrounding as he diligently carries out his tasks; the spectacular and glamorous city is as far away as one can imagine.
