Brownbook #72 – The Dubai Issue

Brownbook is the essential guide to the contemporary Middle East and North Africa featuring beautiful photography and original artwork with in-depth stories and interviews on architecture, food, travel and other culture.

For this latest thick-bodied issue, the magazine heads home to Dubai—a city certainly not lacking in its murky connotations of luxury and development, but one that the editors are keen to approach differently: ‘We aim to uncover the quieter truths, the overlooked details... stories of kinship and nature, family and friendship, craft and community.’
And while there are elements that you might expect (AI artwork and a section on the city as a leading ‘digital ecosystem’, for example) the issue as a whole is more compelling. Beginning with four interviews—mosaicist Ali Alsada, artist Fatma Lootah,  falconer (and satellite developer) Omar bin Ghalib, and Isobel Abulhoul of the iconic Magrudy's bookshop—you'll also find features on Deira's modernist architecture, an artisanal Japanese bakery, and archival photos from Dubai's creek in the heart of the old city.