For a few weeks each summer, between the heat and the haze, Dubai changes colour. The Royal Poinciana, Delonix regia, known locally as the flame tree, breaks into deep red along the city’s roadsides, roundabouts and residential streets.
For a short window it becomes one of the most photographed sights in the UAE, a seasonal marker that pulls photographers out of the studio and onto the highway.
Altamash Javed, a Fujifilm Creator based in Dubai, came to image-making the long way. Born and raised in the Middle East with family ties to Pakistan, he earned a degree in finance and spent seven years in investment banking before a creative pull won out.
In 2015 he stepped into Dubai’s creative scene, starting with mobile photography and the photo talks that introduced him to a community of artists. Today he runs a media production company overseeing a wide range of visual work, and he keeps his own photography deliberately uncategorised.
"A lot of driving and a whole lot of observation skills are required for this. If there was a shot I needed on the highway, park up at the gas station and walk it in the heat."
The intent was clear from the start.
"I knew I wanted to get frames with recognizable Dubai architecture or road artwork that makes it instantly Dubai, which I think I achieved."
Rather than isolating the bloom, Altamash anchored each frame to something distinctly Dubai, letting the red read against the city rather than apart from it.
"My go to kit was the Fuji X-H2 with a 35mm F2 and 70-300mm lenses. 90 percent of the shots were taken with the 70-300mm, which is my go-to and just how my eye likes to see."
The long lens does simple work here, compressing distance so a single tree and a recognisable landmark sit together in the same plane.
Two days, one tree, a whole city. The result is less a record of a flower than a way of reading a place by it.
Instagram: @aljvd
Camera: Fujifilm X-H2 / XF 35mm F2 / XF 70-300mm
