Photographing the World's Longest Cantilever
Ahmad Alnaji and SARAB Art Production created the fine art architectural photography of One Za'abeel, the Nikken Sekkei twin-tower development in Dubai that holds the Guinness World Record for the longest cantilevered building, around images of which were acquired by the developer, Ithra Dubai.
The work began as a personal project. As a lover of great architecture and with a background in architecture myself, I consider One Za’abeel a jackpot! I have been eyeing this project since 20219 when the structure was barely off the ground. Once it got completed and fully cladded, I started planning and creating stories of this masterpiece. Photographed from various rooftops, few of them was very rare to get, and from the ground during different occasions and times. Ithra Dubai, the developer of One Za'abeel, later acquired around twelve of the images. A developer choosing independent work after the fact is its own kind of endorsement, and it is the part of this project I am proudest of.
One Za'abeel is built around that record. Its two towers are joined high above a six-lane highway by The Link, a skybridge that reaches far enough past its supports to take the longest-cantilever title from Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. It holds the One&Only Za'abeel, and sits between Dubai's old and new business districts, the old district, from which I was lucky to capture one of the most unique images. One Za’abeel Framed by the iconic Dubai Frame
Photographing a building famous for one feat is a trap, and I went in knowing it. The easy picture is the one everyone already has in their head: the bridge, the highway, the impossible overhang. I tried to treat the cantilever as a fact of the building rather than the only thing worth saying about it, and to find frames that hold up on a wall, not just in a press release about an engineering record. That’s where, for example, the thunderstorm fine art photos came in, where they told the story of the city and nature coming to play with them.
Here is the thing about records. They get broken. One Za'abeel took the title from Marina Bay Sands, and one day something will take it from One Za'abeel. A photograph that only sells the record ages quickly. A photograph that finds the intent, the story, and the context of the city with the two towers keeps working after the headline is gone. That is the difference I care about, and the standard I held this work to.
It is the same standard on every project. The first job of architectural photography is to serve the building. The harder job, the one worth doing, is to make an image that still has a reason to exist once the building is no longer news. Which is an artwork rather than an image.
Much more left to explore. Check out the fine art photographic collection we did for One Za’abeel