Andrew Moore, a photographer who has captured the grandeur of decay in Russia, Cuba, and most recently in Detroit, traveled to the oil-rich United Arab Emerites last year. The Urban Landscape of Abu Dhabi, now on view at NYU Abu Dhabi Institute, offers his view of a modern city with big plans for the future.

Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, has initiated a growth plan whose target year is 2030. Among the institutions building what appears to be a high-tech Utopia is New York University, which will open a new campus there next fall.

In anticipation of inaugurating "The World's Honors College," it opened the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute at 19 Washington Square North in November. And last night NYUAD launched its first exhibition in the new space with a series of photographs by Andrew Moore.

Left to right: Al Siddiq Hair Dressing Saloon; Khalifa City A, a suburb of Abu Dhabi; View toward Al Wahda stadium. Copyright and courtesy Andrew Moore.

All but four of the 16 images are printed at a massive scale - which has become pretty much a given for a Moore exhibition. He visited incredibly densely built sections of Abu Dhabi, including a sports complex whose bright green shiny new bus shelters for arriving spectators suggest attendance in the high thousands for the world-class soccer matches held there. The skies, shimmering in the dusky light, are all but blocked by apartment buildings whose flat strip windows make the towering structures look like architectural models.

A street scene shot from above characterizes what must be highly chaotic moments when men abandon their vehicles at the call to prayer and throw down their carpets wherever they've stopped. The neatness with which the rugs are lined up is completely at odds with the randomness of the stalled cars and vans along the edges of the frame.

The close view of a "hair saloon" packed with signs and graphics in both Arabic and English presents a colorful image of traditional urban life. The only patron, a large man in white robes, is caught off guard by Moore's camera as the proprietor readies his tools. A mirror on the back wall of the tiny shop doubles the messages and exposes the scene unfolding across the street.

The new Abu Dhabi International Airport is the only setting in which women are in evidence. The sparkling interior is filled with stalls selling luxury goods from Chanel and Calvin Kline; a few women, in traditional black robes and head scarves, can be seen passing through.

I caught up with Andrew by email this morning to find out more about his experience photographing in Abu Dhubai.

Peggy Roalf: It seems that you have portrayed the public life of a place on the verge of major change; can you comment on your reactions to being in a society where women appear to have no role outside their homes?

Andrew Moore: One of the great rationales (and hopes) for building a university is Abu Dhabi is that such an open institution of higher education could pave the way for greater autonomy of local Emirati woman. There is an all female university at present, but my understanding is that the women are actually restricted from leaving the campus unless escorted by a family member, as well as that they remain veiled in the presence of male instructors. It's an open question of how many local women will attend a western style university, and to what degree they can influence a very tradition bound society.

PR: Did being commissioned for this work affect your choice of subject matter and locations in any way?

AM: The commission from NYU was very open in its directives and I was very much allowed to pursue the types of pictures and situations that appealed to me. I had previously worked with Hilary Ballon on the Robert Moses exhibition [at Museum of the City of New York, Columbia University and the Queens Museum in 2007], and we had a very good understanding and agreement from the beginning that we would try to approach Abu Dhabi in all its complexities and contradictions.

PR: I've read your interview with Jorge Colberg and your interest in the promotional qualities of 19^th-century American paintings of the West, by Albert Bierstadt and others who have portrayed distant places never visited by most contemporaneous viewers. Do you see your work as an extension of images by the great 19^th -century "view" and "expeditionary" photographers such as Carleton Watkins, William Henry Jackson and Frances Firth?

AM: I greatly enjoy 19th century photography for its formalism, clarity and sense of discovery. What I try to add, as a 21st century photographer, is an emotional quality, especially through my use of color, as well as looking for situations that represent the intersection of as many historical and cultural layers as possible. I like the urban landscape for its density and intricacy, and am always on the lookout for scenes where time and history has compacted those layers as closely as possible.

PR: Do feel a sense of adventure and sometimes danger when you work in a place as different as can be from home turf?

AM: I'm not exactly sure about this question, but as my approach to subjects is highly collaborative, i.e. that I try to involve the local inhabitants in my work and try to get them to share in the adventure, it's quite rare that I ever feel actually threatened. We do skirt the law quite often, but that's a means to an end. Most of the great pictures lie on the other side of the fence so to speak.

Andrew Moore: The Urban Landscape of Abu Dhabi continues at New York University Abu Dhabi Institute, 19 Washington Square North. For information please visit the website. See more of Andrew Moore's photographs on his website. Visit his exhibition of photographs of Detroit at Yancey Richardson Gallery, on view through January 9, 2010. Learn more about NYUAD and its upcoming exhibitions and public programs.

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