Two Photographers, One Museum
SARAB Art Production, the Dubai fine art architectural photography studio founded by Ahmad Alnaji and Khalid Al Hammadi, photographed Foster + Partners’ Zayed National Museum, and the series, credited to co-founder Khalid Al Hammadi, was shared and praised by Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan in 2025.
Zayed National Museum is a SARAB Art Production project, and it is the clearest example of why two artists see better than one. SARAB was founded by Ahmad Alnaji and Khalid Al Hammadi, and we combined our skills and vision in creating this project for the museum.
The series was built over months rather than in one visit. Khalid is based in Abu Dhabi, so he could shoot the museum again and again as it went up, catching it in conditions and moments you only get by being there repeatedly, such as the rare fox in the artwork below. He shot and sent me the photos to edit, two sets of eyes on every frame, and when the museum opened we went together. For a fine art series, that second pair of eyes is where a lot of the work happens, because one of us always catches what the other walks past. And working with a friend gives you a huge boost in creativity and momentum. The result is a collection where every frame can stand as its own work. That only happens when two of the best photographers in the region unite under one brand.
A building this recognizable is easy to shoot and hard to turn into art. Anyone can get a clean frame of it. The work was making photographs of the Zayed National Museum that stand as artworks in their own right, images a person would want on a wall, of a building most people will only ever see as a postcard. In 2025, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, reposted the series on X and thanked Khalid by name, and The National covered it. When someone at that level shares an artist's images of a national landmark and names the artist, it tells you the work was read as more than a record of the building. Five photographs from the series have been acquired by the museum and are now part of its retail collection.
That is the standard SARAB works to. We are trusted with the buildings the UAE puts forward as its own, and we photograph them as fine art that holds up as the country changes around it. The museum is a national symbol, and our photographs of it were made to be artworks worth owning. A national figure sharing them, and the museum selling prints from the series, is the proof they landed.
