It was a drive-by shooting of the non-violent type.
My friends and long-time residents of Sharjah, the next-door emirate, took me in the car to show me Ajman and a side of the UAE not often glimpsed by outsiders; certainly not often glimpsed by the many tourists who descend on better-known Dubai or Abu Dhabi for seven-star hotels, water parks and Ferrari-themed adventures.
I hung out the window, camera in hand, snapping photos at their insistence. Although we made minor conversation with the subjects in question, mostly to ask if it was all right if I were to photograph them, it wasn't the type of relational photography I prefer, and the images are neither gallery-quality nor particularly poignant; and yet, they manage to capture (in a sometimes out-of-focus way) what might be labeled a very ordinary spring evening in this, the littlest emirate, hidden beneath the shadow of its better-known counterparts.
A pick-up football game
Afghani workers knead dough in a bakery
Nonplused, and I don't blame him.
