Philippe Chancel: Desert Spirit

Between 2007 and 2009, photographer Philippe Chancel (born 1959) made several visits to the United Arab Emirates, and was astounded by the ubiquitous presence of bizarre artifice: the desert grows green, seawater is desalinated and new islands rise out of the sea. Moving from one air-conditioned space to another, from apartment to limousine, from limousine to shopping mall, from shopping mall to theme park, Chancel found irresistible images at every turn; in this volume he expounds the United Arab Emirates as the supreme expression of totalized consumerism.