Breathe, look up, and elevate perspective—this was the profound experience I had moving through the mesmerizing, gravity-defying entry portals in Dubai designed by Asif Khan. His vision was to take tradition and push it to extreme limits to deliver something extraordinary for the world stage of the Dubai Expo. Today, the Entry Portals stand as a masterpiece of innovation and culture colliding to create a new regional aesthetic and transformative experience for millions of people. As I photographed the Portals, I wanted to capture the ingenuity it took to take typical Islamic mashrabiya and turn it into three boxed gateways woven entirely from strands of ultra-lightweight carbon-fiber.
At 21 meters high, and 30 meters long, each gateway is held together with a complex geometry that casts a perfect and dynamic composition of light and shade that shifts depending on the user’s perspective. I combined aerial footage with eye-level motion to capture the enormity yet intricacy of the structure to transform as people pass through. Being on-site for a week, I was immersed in Islamic culture and wanted to capture how the Portals echo the patterns of tradition and signal a sense of place from the breeze passing through the lattice to the delegates opening and closing the gateway to the patterning of mashrabiya.
The Entry Portals are more than a cultural landmark—they are a symbol of physical and mental transformation, breaking down hierarchy, and unifying toward the future.