Yellow Fields - Jed Bacason

Yellow Fields// The Northern Emirates

In the winter months of 2016 to 2019, I took my wife, Patty, and daughter, Cassy, on several road trips to the Northern Emirates exploring the hinterlands of Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, and parts of Dubai.

Along dirt roads snaking through the dry riverbeds of the Hajjar Mountains, we witnessed United Arab Emirates’ old self delicately interwoven with the modern.

Behind the country’s aggressive development and rapid urbanization lies a life of quiet days and empty expanse - where death is as welcome as life, and living harkens back to days long gone.

These road trips started as a leisurely family drive to take advantage of the cold weather, but as we drove back a few times more, it developed into a thoughtful photo project trying to capture the unseen and usually unnoticed life in the lesser-known and less-touristy towns and villages in this part of the country.

What fascinated me and pulled me back to the Northern Emirates year after year is the uncanny resemblance of its small villages to the one I grew up on - unmistakably foreign, yet strangely familiar.

These photographic outings were not only a pleasant journey back in time to this country’s not-so-distant past, but to my childhood years, too.

I was raised in a quaint little town called San Jacinto on a small island in the Philippines, where I would spend my days with my siblings and cousins roaming around in the hills nearby, eating wild fruits and hunting birds with our homemade slingshots.

On some days, we would bring our fishing rods made of bamboo twigs to the river just beyond the rice paddies and catch freshwater fish. We would put them on a stick and cook over the fire while imagining we were The Lost Boys from the afternoon cartoon show on a local TV channel.

We were adventurers and trailblazers in our youthful minds, discovering new places and hideouts, seeking new thrills, and conquering hilltops.

Flying with my family to Dubai in 2013, a mega-city halfway around the world filled with tall, glistening towers and ambitious energy, was both an exhilarating and intimidating experience for us. The first challenge was to stop converting Dubai prices to Philippine pesos to get past the initial shock of the abrupt change.

After settling into our little corner, learning the usual how-to’s and do’s and don’ts, and getting insider tips from new friends and acquaintances, we started to scour the Internet for bargain deals and cheap coupons, don our tourist hats, and spend our weekends soaking up Dubai’s golden glow.

A few years later, and having ticked most of the city’s popular attractions on our bucket list, we started yearning for what’s beyond Dubai’s steel and glass curtain. Like homing pigeons, we also started to look for semblances that would remind us of our lives back in our country.

Setting our sights on the undulating mountains faintly visible from Emirates Road E611 on a clear day, we set out to see what this country looked like before all the skyscrapers rose from the desert. We would search on Google Maps for small towns and villages along the major highways and off roads, plot our course, and hop on our trusty second-hand Japanese 4x4.

These places, at once strange and beautiful, lie along the thin line of then and now, between this country’s storied past and its energetic race into the future. They are evidence of nature’s timelessness and man’s fleeting experiences.

As I burned through rolls of Kodak Portra 120 film taking photographs of any scene that piqued my interest, I realized that I was subconsciously projecting my memories of my hometown, San Jacinto, through these little towns.

While I was looking for photogenic scenes that threw me back to the Emirati life prevalent a few decades ago, I was also searching for home.

It’s a human tendency to relive memories, remnants of past experiences and emotions. And somewhere in the middle of the faint memories of years past and the carefully curated memories of the present, you make pictures.

Dusk, Masafi village, Fujairah

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Heritage village, Hatta bordertown, Dubai

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Abandoned royal residence, Ras Al Khaimah

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Yellow Jimny, Adhen village in Ras Al Khaimah

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Local villager, Hatta bordertown, Dubai

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Tattered UAE flags, Al Bootain Al Hamrah, Umm Al Quwain

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Inside a roadside cafeteria, Asimah, Ras Al Khaimah

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Roadside cafeteria, Shawka, Ras Al Khaimah

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Red chairs, Shis village, Sharjah

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Local kid in a bicycle, Mamdouh, Ras Al Khaimah

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Covered car, Al Jazirah Alhamra old town in Ras Al Khaimah

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Roadside ads, labor camp in Al Sajaa, Sharjah

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Child with a toy doll, Al Bithnah village, Fujairah

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Residential area, Nahwa village, a UAE counter-enclave within Madha, Oman exclave

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Roadside vendor, Madha, Oman exclave

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Late afternoon, Madha, Oman exclave

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Town grocery, Al Halah, Fujairah

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Friday Market fruit vendor, Masafi, Fujairah

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Petrol station attendants, Al Dhaid, Sharjah

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Desert road, Al Ghayl, Ras Al Khaimah

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Discarded metal container, Al Ghayl, Ras Al Khaimah

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Abandoned building, Tawi Rbaya, Umm Al Quwain

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Burnt cars, Al Dhait, Ras Al Khaimah

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Ruins of temporary labor camp, Al Dhait, Ras Al Khaimah

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Carcass of a wild donkey, Al Ghayl, Ras Al Khaimah

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Young ghaf tree, Al Ghayl, Ras Al Khaimah

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Wild donkey, Tawi Rbaya, Umm Al Quwain

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Abandoned car with blown-out tires, Al Suyoh Suburb, Sharjah`

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Empty road, Al Mutsannid Suburb, Sharjah

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Wadi Shawka, Ras Al Khaimah

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Discarded mattress bed on a riverbank, Shawka, Ras Al Khaimah

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Roadside food vendor, Sifuni village, Ras Al Khaimah

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Food cart, Umbrella Beach, Fujairah

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Highway fruit vendor, Al Dhaid, Sharjah

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Labor camp, Al Jazirah Alhamra old town, Ras Al Khaimah

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Abandoned flats, Al Jazirah Alhamra old town, Ras Al Khaimah

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At Jebel Hafeet View Point, Al Ain, Abu Dhabi

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Town grocery, Nahwa village, a UAE counter-enclave within Madha, Oman exclave

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Laundry shop, Madha, Oman exclave

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Traditional mountain dwelling, Madha, Oman exclave

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Desert farm gate, Emirates Road, Exit 95, Umm Al Quwain

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Food cart, Umbrella Beach, Fujairah

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Building by the river, Madha, Oman exclave

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Tail of the abandoned Ilyushin IL76 Russian cargo plane, Umm Al Quwain airport

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Closed tarmac, Umm Al Quwain airport

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Inside the cockpit of the abandoned IL76 cargo plane, Umm Al Quwain airport

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Hatta bordertown, Dubai

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Date farm laborer, Al Uyaynah, Fujairah

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Hillside, Al Bidya, Fujairah

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Mosque, Al Bidya, Fujairah

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Laborer, Al Jazirah Al Hamra old town, Ras Al Khaimah

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Goat farm, Ghub, Fujairah

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Wild donkey, Tawi Rbaya, Umm Al Quwain

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Street vendor, Al Bithnah village, Fujairah

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Child with a toy doll, Masafi village, Fujairah

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At the bus stop, Al Sajaa labor camp, Sharjah

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Dusk, Madha, Oman exclave

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Ruins of old dwellings, Al Jazirah Alhamra old town, Ras Al Khaimah

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Mountainside payphone, Shis village, Sharjah

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Date farm, Shis village, Sharjah

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Laborers, Al Farfar, Fujairah

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Desert road, Shis village, Fujairah

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Arab couple, Shawka, Ras Al Khaimah

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Mountain road to Wadi Maidaq, Al Ghayl, Ras Al Khaimah

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Hatta Lake, Hatta bordertown, Dubai

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