Back in July I was invited, out of the blue, to Saudi Arabia to photograph a new territory in the north-west of the country called NEOM. A small area of the country tucked away between Jordan to the north and the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea to the west and south, NEOM is being developed as a new tourist destination. Actually when I say small, it’s all relative - Saudi Arabia is a vast country and this small area is roughly the size of Belgium. The vision for the area isn’t small either, there are plans to create something far more ambitious than just a tourist destination, it’s unclear at this stage exactly what form it will take but you can see for yourself here www.neom.com.

Anyway, wait, what? Invited to Saudi Arabia? I’m just a landscape photographer from Suffolk, this all sounds too good to be true. That’s exactly what I thought at first and as at this stage this was just a proposal, as weeks passed without hearing anything I assumed it wasn’t going to happen and forgot all about it. As summer slipped into autumn however, a flurry of emails arrived and the plan started to take shape… suddenly it was real, I was going to Saudi Arabia. Actually not quite yet I wasn’t, I still needed a VISA. I’d filled out the forms but I needed to send off my passport and I couldn’t do that as I was going to be using it until two days before I was due to leave!

Obviously it all worked out, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this but it involved a last minute dash straight from Gatwick Airport to London to hand over my passport in person and then a tense wait to see if it would make it back to me in time. It’s much easier now if you are thinking of going to Saudi Arabia, electronic tourist VISAs are available which take minutes to sort out online.

I was one of a group of eight photographers, assembled from all around the globe - landscape, drone, underwater, ocean, portrait and astro photographers - each having been selected to bring their particular photography skills to capture the natural beauty of this area.

I don’t think any of us knew quite what to expect when we took on this job, but arriving at the hotel and meeting up with the clients and the other photographers and seeing the organisation that had gone into this trip, it quickly became clear that this was a very big deal. We were in the privileged position of being here at the very beginning of this project. The first international photographers to explore and capture this stunning region as it is now, in all its dramatic beauty before development begins.

As we had a big area to cover and only four days of shooting, locations had been previously scouted and divided up between us so we each had an itinerary for the four days, along with a driver and a guide to look after us. To maximise our time we generally only had one chance to shoot each location so there was no room for error… The pressure was on!

It wasn’t going to be easy though. Although I was armed with all the scouting information prepared for me, there is no substitute for getting your boots muddy (or sandy in this case) and seeing the place for yourself. In addition, the tools I usually use to help build up a picture of a new place… Google Earth, image searches etc had little or no material available so arriving in the dark for a sunrise shoot, I was, well, in the dark. These are the sort of challenges that any self respecting photographer relishes though and it was exhilarating to be in such an unfamiliar landscape, having to think on my feet to come up with something.

Besides, the views were something else… Huge areas of desert are studded with massive sandstone outcrops, sculptured by the elements over the centuries into weird and wonderful shapes and the whole area is crossed by endless layers of mountains stretching across the desert before plunging into the azure waters of the Red Sea. If, as a photographer, you’re not inspired by somewhere like this, you’re in the wrong game.

Perhaps a bigger challenge was the weather. At dawn and dusk, the mountains and rocky outcrops of the desert looked glorious in the hazy pastel twilight colours and the golden hour light was amazing, the first rays of low sunlight painted the rocks and mountains in shades of pink, gold and red. With clear skies though, once the magic light of golden hour had passed, things quickly became too bright… and hot. Even in October daytime temperatures were in the high 30s and the sunlight was way too harsh for my liking. So, rather than waste my time battling the difficult conditions, I took the decision to use the brightest hours of daylight to try and get to know the locations on my list in an effort to be better prepared for when I visited at sunrise or sunset. The more time I spent in this incredible, other worldly landscape, the more I fell in love with it and the more I wanted to discover… four packed days was barely enough to scratch the surface and I’d love to delve deeper.

As I said, I didn’t know exactly what to expect from the place or the people before arriving here. I certainly hadn’t anticipated the landscapes being so epic and I also had no idea, perhaps naively considering where it is, of the history the region held. There are thousands of years of history but while photographing sites like the caves at Al Badh, where 1st century Nabatean tombs are carved into the mountains, the sort of ancient historical site which in nearby Jordan or Egypt would be thronged with visitors, I practically had the place to myself. I got the impression that we were in the desert equivalent of being out in the sticks, it was a big, sparsely populated area but if I didn’t see many tourists, I did meet some locals on my travels (and not just the camels wandering across the road) and even got invited to join some of them for Arabic coffee and dates in the desert. The people were very friendly and seemed genuinely pleased to see foreign visitors… at least I think they were, my Arabic isn’t what it could be!

Usually, landscape photography is a lonely pursuit, don’t get me wrong, I actually quite like that. When I’m working I’m more than happy to be alone without distractions, talking away to myself (or the dog) but it’s also nice to chat about photography over a beer or two at the end of the day. One of the nicest things about this trip was to be able to chat with other photographers, discuss problems and share experiences (although sadly not beer!) at the end of a day working alone. So I couldn’t finish this blog without mentioning by name the sickeningly talented bunch of photographers with whom I shared this incredible experience, go check them out…

NEOM is where the heart is...

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