AlUla is one of Saudi Arabia's most significant heritage landscapes, where ancient Nabataean sites meet a new generation of cultural architecture set into the desert. Work here has spanned architecture, interiors, and large-scale aerial documentation, for the Royal Commission for AlUla and independent design studios alike.
Architecture, interior, and aerial photography across AlUla, in the northwest of Saudi Arabia, one of the Kingdom's most significant heritage and cultural development zones. Commissions have included the executive terminal of AlUla International Airport for the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), DesignSpace by Italian studio GioForma, and Desert X, the biennial international art event held in the AlUla desert.
AlUla, in the northwest of the Kingdom, is unlike any other commission environment in Saudi Arabia. The landscape itself is the dominant element, ancient sandstone formations, Nabataean heritage sites, and a built environment designed to sit within rather than impose upon the natural terrain. Photography here is not straightforwardly urban. It requires an understanding of how architecture relates to landscape at a scale that most building photography never encounters.
Airspace restrictions in AlUla are among the most complex in the Kingdom. Drone operations require GACA permits coordinated with RCU and, in some areas, additional security clearances. This process is managed in full as part of any commission here.
The Royal Commission for AlUla has been a long-running client, spanning several distinct commissions rather than a single project. Work has also come through independent design studios producing standalone architecture and interior work in the region, not only through RCU.
AlUla represents a growing part of the KSA commission portfolio as the region's cultural and tourism infrastructure continues to develop under the Vision 2030 framework. Commissions here are awarded both directly through RCU and through the design studios and cultural organisations working in the region.
AlUla International Airport, Executive Terminal (RCU)
Commissioned by the Royal Commission for AlUla to photograph the artworks and installations inside the executive terminal of AlUla International Airport, under a special permit granted for access inside the airport. The brief covered the artwork and installations by a number of different artists individually, alongside the executive terminal itself as a piece of architecture.
The images were used in a high-end premium book published and displayed at AlUla Airport, alongside further photography of AlUla more broadly. It is the kind of commission that sits between architecture and documentation: reading a building's art programme with the same seriousness as its structure.
DesignSpace, GioForma
Commissioned to photograph DesignSpace, a concept space in AlUla designed by the Italian studio GioForma. GioForma designed the project to belong to its landscape rather than sit on top of it, and that became the guiding principle for the photography: the mountains and terrain of AlUla were treated as part of the story, not a backdrop.
The shoot covered the full arc of the day, sunrise to sunset, to document how light moves through and around the space, with artificial lighting introduced at specific moments to work with the project's perforated walls. The work was published on Dezeen, Designboom, and Architectural Digest Middle East, and shown as part of Milan Design Week.
Desert X AlUla
Commissioned by the Royal Commission for AlUla to cover Desert X, one of the most recognised international art events in the world, held every two years and bringing artists from across the globe to build large-scale installations in the AlUla desert.
The team documented the installations under construction over the months leading up to the opening. Coverage of the completed artworks themselves, the images used for press and publication, was shot personally in a tight two to three day window once the work was finished, ahead of the public opening. The scope spanned stills, video, and aerial, directed on the ground alongside a local aerial operator.
Working Within a Protected Landscape
AlUla operates under heritage and environmental protection, and access is coordinated through the relevant authority rather than negotiated on site. That applies to vehicles, to positions off established routes, and to aerial work in particular. Permissions are established well before travel.
Drone operations require civil aviation authority clearance, and in AlUla there is a second layer: the landscape itself is protected, and heritage areas carry their own restrictions independent of airspace. Aerial frames here are planned, cleared, and specific rather than exploratory.
How an AlUla Commission Is Built
The schedule is the commission. Given how short the good light is and how far positions can be from each other, an AlUla shoot is planned to the hour, with the sequence of positions worked out before arrival rather than discovered on the day.
Capture is medium format, which the sandstone and the interior work alike genuinely demand. The tonal range between lit rock and shade is extreme, and the colour is the entire character of the place. Retouching is fine art realistic and, in AlUla more than anywhere, restrained.
Cooler months from roughly November to March are the working season, both for light angle and for the practical reality of multi position days in open desert.
