Book Review: Magri, Women of the UAE, Cova Group, 2012

This folio-size photobook of 100 female portraits looks like it might have been conceived and sponsored by the Dubai or Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce.  It has about it that air of self-congratulation, presenting resident females as entrepreneurs, academics, ranking government office holders, artists, designers, radio and television personalities, film directors, and business owners.  But the project was in fact produced by an Australian “fashion, beauty, advertising and luxurious lifestyle” photographer who came to the UAE in 2002 little expecting to find so many females active in capitalistic pursuits.  This collection is a document of these women. It is the photographer's first book project and partial profits are being donated to breast cancer research.  

Women of the UAE opens with a striking full-body image of an Indian paramedic in work gear.  Most of the other images are head or half-torso shots, women of various nationalities, ages, and professional occupations, all of them what might be described as well-educated and upper middle class.  A few subjects fall outside this circle - a Filipino legal secretary, a Ugandan currency exchange teller, an Indian school teacher - but the overall impression is one of professional and financial “success.”

Indian ambulance officer

Indian TV presenter

British-Iraqi Event organizer

Ugandan Currency exchange teller

One photo stands out among these high-powered women, an Indonesian maid captured at slow speed, blurring her features and representing her as so many maids and those of the laboring class exist in this society - out of focus or unseen.  Her image made me stop and wonder, where in this collection are the women I meet every week in Dubai?  Where is the Bangladeshi cleaner, the Nepali cashier, the Filipino waitress, the Sri Lankan security guard, the Emirati bank teller, the Chinese merchant?  

Indonesian maid

In a recent interview the photographer said she hopes her book will have a lasting impact “by giving a true, contemporary representation of Women in the UAE.”  For all the skill and talent on display, her presentation of this society seems partial and incomplete.  Perhaps a future volume will redress the imbalance.  

Women of the UAE
Charney Magri
2012
Cova Group

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