In Pics: Photographer Imagines Zoo Animals Loose in Dubai

(Main image: Richard Allenby-Pratt)

What would the world be like if we weren’t dependent on oil?

This is a question that Photographer Richard Allenby-Pratt aims to answer in his series titled ‘Abandoned’, which showcases wild animals lost between the landscapes of Dubai.

In the series, Allenby-Pratt depicts an imaginary near-future, in which the world is no longer dependent on oil. As a result, Dubai has been deserted – the ‘wealthy have fled’, and zoo animals are free to roam around their ‘strange new surroundings’, The Guardian explains.

With imagery that mirrors a scene from the 2007 film I Am Legend that involves a lioness and a deer, the series of images are somewhat eerie – and his project aims to highlight the abundance of space we leave for nature.

Inspired by the number of building sites in Dubai that have been abandoned since the financial crisis, each image shows a different wild animal lost between the skyscrapers and construction – with some proving difficult to spot.

Residents of Dubai will no doubt be familiar with sights of Burj Khalifa’s construction, as well as the half-moon building located in Business Bay.

While Allenby-Pratt worked on the project for up to two years, some of the background images were taken almost a decade earlier – hence the incomplete Burj.

“The giraffe image has been the most popular”, says Allenby-Pratt.

He added this his main challenge was finding the right animal for each scene, and “also finding the right locations to photograph, [ones that] really captured the atmosphere and sense of abandonment" he wished to have.

While the images are striking, we sure do hope they won’t become a reality too soon – and let’s hope the new Dubai Safari won’t take any of their new animals out for a walk (we’re joking, of course). 

Keep scrolling for the rest of the series...