Mirror of the Orient

The Empty Quarter Gallery in association with Alliance Française Dubai and Aramex present the new photographic exhibition “Mirror of the Orient” by French artists Roland and Sabrina Michaud.

The idea behind “Mirror of the Orient” is to reflect the beauty of Islamic culture and to prompt reflection on it. The result is a fantastic dialogue between art and life, past and present, oriental miniatures and photography.

“My fascination with the idea of mirrors dates back to my trip in Persia sixty years ago, I was amazed to discover that the Palace of Forty Columns in Isfahan had only twenty but the reflection of these in the water made them appear double this number. The world of miniatures is an enchanting world of light, color and transparency” Roland Michaud highlights. Roland and Sabrina have a deep interest in miniatures and old illustrations for different cultures. While travelling the Orient, they wanted to re-discover this authenticity and genuineness of this particular culture.

This exhibition is a reflection of Beauty and the Islamic civilization. These images reflect a spiritual message, and together, they talk and we question their resemblance. Probably 700 years separate a picture from its illustration, but the essence of culture remains.
Roland Michaud, French born met a Moroccan born girl called Sabrina in the late 1950’s and began their life together traveling through the mystic lands of the Orient discovering and documenting its wonders.
They made their way by car and by horseback, by boat and on foot; crossing the dramatic landscape of the Orient and documenting its rugged charms. From ruined cities covered with desert sands to the Pamir Mountains, where caravans of camels walk across frozen rivers in winter, to the Turkestan bazaars along the old Silk Road, Roland and Sabrina travelled and came to love this exotic paradise and its proud people.

Roland was born in France in 1930; Sabrina in the city of Rabat, Morocco in 1938. In 1960, the couple began on a photographic journey in their Citroen car to Ethiopia and North Africa where they acquired their first images later published in the French press. They published twenty-three books, and their monograph summarizes their unique experience of genuine travellers in love with beauty.