Camel Race in Dubai, 1991, Documentary Photography
In November 1991, during a six-week stay in Dubai for the DPPI agency and Headline News, I photographed a camel race ridden by very young jockeys. The assignment was brief and tightly controlled, but it captures a particular moment in a Dubai that was still far removed from the image the world knows today.
In 1990, I was working as a press photographer for DPPI, a press agency specializing in motorsport. Among our clients was the Lebanese magazine Sport Auto, which had an office in Dubai called Headline News. At the time, Dubai was still a little-known destination for the European public.
On the eve of the First Gulf War, the emirate had invited European journalists to cover the final round of the Middle East Rally Championship and to visit several industrial infrastructures. The message was clear : to show that economic life was continuing, particularly around the Jebel Ali free zone. Looking back, this crisis communication echoes the messages of economic continuity that the UAE still seeks to project in the face of recent regional tensions and drone attacks attributed to Iran.
This first contact with Sport Auto Lebanon’s Dubai office led to a new assignment in 1991. The two partners hired my services through DPPI to join the media team promoting Saudi rally driver Mamdouh Khayat across several events : Halkidiki in Greece, Cyprus, the Algarve in Portugal, the Mountain Rally in Lebanon, Oman, and Dubai.
It was in this context that they invited me to spend six weeks in Dubai, between November and December 1991. Outside the rally events, I also produced editorial illustration photography and magazine features : city scenes, the fish market, aerial views, Gulf atmospheres, local traditions, and more unexpected assignments.
Negotiated access to the race track
For this camel racing assignment, my local contacts approached a trainer who acted as an intermediary with the sheikhs to negotiate my access to the race track.
When I arrived, I was taken into a reception room. I knew no one. Everyone stared at me. I simply waited with my camera gear for the trainer to come and confirm what I would be allowed to do.
The conditions were clear : I was allowed to photograph one training session and one race. However, I was not allowed to photograph the grandstands or the reception lounges. The framework was strict, and the assignment would be short.
Two rolls of film, nine photographs
I shot only two rolls of film. The nine photographs presented in this gallery come from that brief assignment. They show the camels, the young jockeys, the preparation before the start, and the very particular atmosphere of the track.
At that time, camels were still ridden by very young children, chosen for their low weight. This practice was later replaced by remotely controlled mechanical devices mounted on the animals’ backs.
After a first training run, I positioned myself on the track to photograph the arrival of the camels and their jockeys. My focus was to capture the organization of the start, the movement of the animals, the concentration of the children, and the role of the adults holding the camels in place before the signal.
The start was fairly chaotic. Adults had to hold the animals until the very last moment, then move away as quickly as possible once the race began. It was a brief, highly physical moment where everyone seemed to be acting under pressure.
I then photographed the race and the finish. As soon as the assignment was over, I was escorted back to the parking area. There would be no further access, no additional scenes, no opportunity to extend the story. Everything happened in a very short space of time.
A little-known Dubai
Looking back, these photographs belong to a very specific period. The Dubai of the early 1990s was not yet the city of towering skyscrapers, giant shopping malls, and global tourism marketing. It was a place in transition, where local traditions coexisted with a very strong drive for economic development.
This assignment was not originally intended as ethnographic work. It was part of a press mission connected to motorsport and magazine features commissioned on location. Yet today, these images tell a different story : a moment of transition, a practice that has since disappeared in this form, and a way of working typical of film-era press photography.
Two rolls of film, limited access, a few minutes on the track. It was very little, but that is also what gives this series its documentary value. It captures a moment I would probably never have been able to photograph without this particular context, involving DPPI, Sport Auto Lebanon, Headline News, Middle Eastern rally events, and that extended stay in Dubai in 1991.
Click on the photos below to view them full screen.
All the photos displayed on this website are copyright protected © Sebastien Desnoulez. No use allowed without written authorization.
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About the author
Sebastien Desnoulez is a photographer, author and image maker based in Paris. His work spans architectural photography, landscape photography and travel photography, with particular attention to composition, lines, light, blur and visual accidents. Trained in photography in the mid-1980s, he covered Formula 1 and reported from around the world before developing a fine art photography practice built around the tension between graphic rigour and visual instability. He also shares his technical experience through practical articles for passionate photographers, drawing on a strong visual culture acquired in both film and digital photography.
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