Nearness

Every other publication in this catalogue documents a place that can be visited. This one does not. Makkah and Madinah are not destinations in the ordinary sense: nobody passes through, and nobody arrives without having intended to for a long time, sometimes a whole life.

The camera is an awkward companion on a journey like this. It wants to stand back, and the entire point of being here is nearness: to the Kaaba, to the mosque of the Prophet ﷺ, to the millions who have stood on the same marble before you. Most of what matters cannot be photographed at all. These photographs do not attempt the whole. They hold the edges of it: the first sight of the sanctuary from a dark hotel window, the gold embroidery on the door, the train that now crosses the Hijrah road in two hours, the umbrellas opening over the courtyards at dawn, the quiet of Quba at sunset, the meals laid nightly by families who will not eat them, and the objects that travel home.

Makkah is gravity. Madinah is rest. Between the two sits everything a pilgrim goes to find, none of which reflects light, all of which the camera spends the whole journey circling. This volume is that circling, printed. Those who know, know. It is for them, and for the ones still intending to go.

The full publication is available to read below. Click to open in full.

The two studies that preceded and informed this publication are in the archive.

• Makkah  ·  Gravity and nearness
• Madinah al-Munawwarah  ·  Peace and the green dome