Issue 6: Landscapes Within and Without

Pauliana Valente Pimentel’s Rub’ al Khali:
A Poetic Gaze on Dubai’s Elusive Real

We are excited to announce our editorial partnership with Kioskzine, Portugal’s dynamic platform for documentary photography, as we feature their compelling publications in our newsletter over the coming months. This series begins with Rub’ al Khali (Empty Quarter), a mesmerizing project by Pauliana Valente Pimentel, Kioskzine’s first officially published photographer, whose work redefines how we engage with place and image.

In 2015, curator Marie Loffreda invited Pauliana to document Dubai, envisioning a visual memory that balanced documentary rigor with poetic nuance. Inspired by photographers like Robert Frank and Stephen Shore, Pauliana aimed to capture the city’s everyday rhythm. Yet, Dubai—risen from desert sands through oil and commerce—presented a challenge, its guarded interiority resisting the intimacy she sought.

This tension became the heart of Rub’ al Khali. As José Farinha, Kioskzine co-founder, shared in our interview, Pauliana’s collaboration was “fantastic.” The team worked closely with her, sequencing images through open dialogue to craft a fanzine that reflects her vision and Kioskzine’s commitment to accessibility. The special edition sold out in just three days, a testament to Pauliana’s resonance and the project’s impact. “She was super cooperative,” Farinha noted, “and her work has sparked calls for a re-edition.”

Art critic David Santos, in his essay Between the Image and an Imaginarium of Dubai, describes Pauliana’s work as a “poetic archive” that rejects Dubai’s glossy veneer. Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s concept of the dialectical image—where past and present collide in a fleeting “flash”—Santos highlights her focus on quiet disruptions: a cracked pavement dwarfed by a skyscraper, a discarded object catching the desert sun.

These images—some hinting at presence through fleeting gestures, others embracing absence in forgotten corners—resist spectacle. They belong to a gaze that listens patiently to a landscape that speaks sparingly. Rub’ al Khali is not a portrait of Dubai, but a meditation on what emerges when a photographer recalibrates her expectations of place and craft.

Kioskzine’s mission to create tactile, enduring documents shines through in this work. As Farinha emphasized, “We want these fanzines to sit on your shelf, to be rediscovered years later.” With only 150 copies printed, each publication is a collector’s treasure, designed to spark curiosity and preserve stories.

Through our partnership with Kioskzine, Galeria Local’s newsletter will spotlight artists like Pauliana, fostering a deeper appreciation for documentary photography. We look forward to sharing more from this collaboration, potentially through future events or exhibitions, to bring these vital narratives to our community.