Blue Dust

Blue Dust is a photography project correlating a specific landscape to the work that alters it. The built environment is that of the desert of Bahrain, while the labour is that of steel workers. The project consists of a sequence of photographs of the desert, comprising a series of full-length portraits and four texts independent of the images. The photographed desert is the place where autochthonous citizens of Bahrain pass their holidays in order to get in touch with their ancestral nomadic origins. The desert is also the site of gas and petroleum ducts and high voltage trellises, which alter and accentuate the topography of the territory. The men portrayed are immigrants attempting to improve their own living conditions and those of their families. Through their labour they construct the objects that modify the landscape of the desert. In Blue Dust, images of landscape and labour coincide in order to reveal aspects of the construction of contemporary society.