Photographer Ayesha Malik is an American citizen who was raised in a gated community in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia created in the 1930s as a home away from home for American employees of the Arabian American Oil Company, now known as Saudi Aramco. Malik lived on the Dhahran compound for the first 22 years of her life with her father, who worked at Aramco, her mother, and her two siblings. In 2011, when Malik first learned her dad was retiring from the company, she felt a sense of urgency to document the place where she grew up with her camera.
Aramco: Above the Oil Fields (Daylight, August 8, 2017) is Malik’s fascinating personal account of life in this all-inclusive community in the middle of the Arabian desert modeled after a typical California town with palm trees, verdant lawns, and family oriented recreational activities that evoke a simpler time in America.
Ayesha Malik writes about Dhahran: “Nothing is obvious here. Life seems to exist at a cross-section of times past and times to come. This American town re-created in Saudi Arabia has defined my understanding of the world through its dusty rose-colored filter, the simple yet exceptionally worldly people, and its iconic landscape. For many, the mention of Saudi Arabia comes with an array of associations. For me, Saudi Arabia, particularly Dhahran, is home, momentous and ordinary all at once.”
Through over 150 images, the majority taken in 2016, and archival materials, she shares the surprising warmth, familiarity, and timelessness of this 22-and-a-half square-mile place that so many Aramcons call home. Her portrait and landscape photographs raise conversations about perception and preconceived ideas regarding what defines a “home” that is neither fully Saudi nor fully American, a home unlike any other.
Ayesha Malik, Aramco: Above the oil fields
Published by Daylights Books
$50
