Now & Then - The Emirates
by John J. Nowell LRPS FRGS

Price: UAE Dhs 135/- or UK £ 25/-
ISBN: 0-9533033-0-6

Now & Then - The Emirates provides a fascinating insight into a nation in transition, a beautiful and historical photographic record, and an inspiration for photographers in the years to come.

It would be easy to forget the monumental strides that have been taken over the space of barely two generations. Fortunately, old photographs exist, many of them taken by pilots whose duties have brought them to the region over the years, to show the extent of the changes.

It was while studying some of these old photos - the 'then' part of the title - that John Nowell, himself a pilot and photographer, decided to try to duplicate the photographers' location to achieve the 'now' view of Now & Then - The Emirates. His work has taken him through all seven emirates, both in the air and on the ground, and in the process revealed many sights and details that might easily have simply vanished with time. At Bitna, he photographed the same guard whose decades-old picture had been supplied. A spectacular geological formation in Ras Al Khaimah is still clearly visible, while elsewhere dredging has changed channels and coastline beyond recognition.

About the Author

Yorkshire born John Nowell completed his first wing over at the age of fourteen as a member of the Air Training Corps, in a De Havilland Chipmunk. He decided then and there that flying was to be his career. After leaving school, he joined the Royal Air Force but was too late to achieve his ambition of flying Sunderland flying boats. He did serve on some of the great flying boat squadrons, numbers 206,205 and 230, where in addition to his flying duties he was responsible for the squadron records, including the photo albums and the RAF Form 540s - the monthly operational record of the squadron. It was here that John first saw the amazing records of the exploration flights, made in the 1930s, by the flying boat crews who crossed half the world to Australia and the Far East. The original photographs taken by the RAF aircrews of the coast of what was to become the United Arab Emirates were the seeds that became this book.

John was made a Licenciate of The Royal Photographic Society in 1990 on the basis of the photographs in his first book, A Day Above Oman. His photographic interest in history and archaeology was also instrumental in the location of four-thousand-year-old tombs on a remote plateau in Oman. His second book, A Day Above The Emirates, was the culmination of work undertaken since he moved to Dubai. He is working on further books in the A Day Above and Now & Then series.

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