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Lot Essay
“A vast field of cranes stands in the perpetual glow of construction lights as the massive expansion of the Great Mosque takes shape and much of Mecca’s history is erased. This view is from the top of the crane used to build the minaret where Al-Shamia Mountain once overlooked the Kaaba. As mountains are flattened, concrete walls erected, and a global city of travellers grows, I wonder how this transformed landscape will affect the collective memory and identity of Mecca’s inhabitants.” – Ahmed Mater, 2011
Golden Hour is the central work of Ahmed Mater’s acclaimed ongoing project, Desert of Pharan, an extensive photographic examination of the rapid urban transformation of the holy city of Mecca and the shifting relationship between public and private space. While the city is home to more than a million residents, its infrastructure has been radically reshaped to accommodate the millions of pilgrims and visitors who arrive every year. Existing models of urban development have been implemented on a vast scale, deploying imported financial and planning expertise within Mecca’s particular geopolitical, technological, environmental, geomorphological and religious context.
The series takes its name from an ancient appellation for Mecca, referencing the arid and rugged expanses of the ‘Desert of Paran’ or ‘Wilderness of Paran’, described in the Old Testament. This title introduces a conceptual dialogue between two conflicting visions of the city: the ancient, mountainous landscape that has defined Mecca for centuries and the contemporary metropolis now being constructed upon it. Mater’s project traces the encounter between Islamic tradition and the forces of globalisation, examining a city whose significance within the global imagination remains deeply rooted even as its physical form is undergoing profound change. Economic ambition, technological advancement, religious obligation, global mobility and the specific geography of the Hijaz converge here, producing a landscape in which ancient ritual and accelerated modernisation occupy the same space.
Within this context, Golden Hour captures the extraordinary pace of Mecca’s transformation. The historic landscape is progressively displaced by infrastructure, monumental mosque expansion and increasingly ambitious skyscrapers. Yet Mater does not simply document this process, he constructs a photograph in which its contradictions become visible. The image thus poses a fundamental question: how can a city possess such enduring historical, religious and symbolic significance while its physical landscape is simultaneously being radically altered?
The centrality of Golden Hour within Desert of Pharan lies in its capacity to hold these opposing temporalities and forms of movement within a single image. The viewer’s gaze is drawn towards the Kaaba and the pilgrims at the centre of the image, illuminated by the warm light of the setting sun. Around them, a vast field of cranes, construction equipment and newly erected infrastructure extends across the foreground, while the mountains remain visible in the distance. The resulting spatial arrangement places the sacred centre of Mecca within an environment increasingly dominated by the apparatus of construction. The cranes themselves form a powerful visual counterpoint to the pilgrims. Their movement is mechanical and directional: they rotate, lift and construct, embodying the accelerated rhythms of contemporary urban development. The pilgrims, by contrast, move in continuous circumambulation around the Kaaba, performing a ritual whose continuity stretches across centuries. Mater places these two systems of movement within the same visual field, setting the linear momentum of construction against the cyclical continuity of pilgrimage. In doing so, Golden Hour distils the central preoccupation of the series: the encounter between a landscape shaped by centuries of ritual and one being rapidly remade for the future.
This tension is further articulated through Mater's treatment of light. The construction site is illuminated by the harsh artificial glow of cranes and surrounding buildings, extending human activity into the night and reinforcing the relentless momentum of development. Against this, the setting sun introduces a slower and more elemental rhythm. Its warm light descends across the landscape, catching the mountain in the distance and momentarily shifting attention away from the machinery below. Unlike the cranes, the movement of the sun is beyond human control: cyclical, gradual and indifferent to the pace of construction. This interplay of artificial and natural light produces the photograph’s almost mystical atmosphere. For a fleeting moment, the warm light of the setting sun appears to overwhelm the immense apparatus of modernity surrounding the sacred site, introducing stillness into an image otherwise defined by movement and acceleration. The mountains, too, acquire significance within this temporal contrast: they evoke the geological and historical scale of the landscape even as the construction below signals its rapid physical transformation.
Golden Hour ultimately holds these different temporalities and movements in suspension. The enduring ritual of pilgrimage, the ancient landscape and the sacred architecture of the Kaaba coexist with cranes, infrastructure and the expanding metropolis. Rather than resolving the contradictions between them, Mater leaves them open, creating an image in which Mecca’s past, present and future are held simultaneously.
Born in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, in 1979, Ahmed Mater is one of the leading figures of contemporary Saudi art. He trained as a physician while developing his artistic practice at the Al-Meftaha Arts Village in Abha, an experience that established the dialogue between science, faith and visual culture that continues to inform his work. Working across painting, sculpture, photography, installation and video, Mater has developed an expansive practice over more than two decades, exploring the intersections of religion, modernisation, globalisation and Saudi identity. His acclaimed Desert of Pharan series has become one of the defining bodies of his practice. In 2017, the Brooklyn Museum presented Ahmed Mater: Mecca Journeys, a major exhibition centered on his photographic documentation of the holy city and its changing landscape.
Mater’s work is held in major international collections including LACMA, Los Angeles; the British Museum, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation (DAF), Beirut; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha. As co-founder of Edge of Arabia, he has also played an important role in connecting a new generation of Saudi artists with international audiences. He lives and works in Riyadh.
Golden Hour is the central work of Ahmed Mater’s acclaimed ongoing project, Desert of Pharan, an extensive photographic examination of the rapid urban transformation of the holy city of Mecca and the shifting relationship between public and private space. While the city is home to more than a million residents, its infrastructure has been radically reshaped to accommodate the millions of pilgrims and visitors who arrive every year. Existing models of urban development have been implemented on a vast scale, deploying imported financial and planning expertise within Mecca’s particular geopolitical, technological, environmental, geomorphological and religious context.
The series takes its name from an ancient appellation for Mecca, referencing the arid and rugged expanses of the ‘Desert of Paran’ or ‘Wilderness of Paran’, described in the Old Testament. This title introduces a conceptual dialogue between two conflicting visions of the city: the ancient, mountainous landscape that has defined Mecca for centuries and the contemporary metropolis now being constructed upon it. Mater’s project traces the encounter between Islamic tradition and the forces of globalisation, examining a city whose significance within the global imagination remains deeply rooted even as its physical form is undergoing profound change. Economic ambition, technological advancement, religious obligation, global mobility and the specific geography of the Hijaz converge here, producing a landscape in which ancient ritual and accelerated modernisation occupy the same space.
Within this context, Golden Hour captures the extraordinary pace of Mecca’s transformation. The historic landscape is progressively displaced by infrastructure, monumental mosque expansion and increasingly ambitious skyscrapers. Yet Mater does not simply document this process, he constructs a photograph in which its contradictions become visible. The image thus poses a fundamental question: how can a city possess such enduring historical, religious and symbolic significance while its physical landscape is simultaneously being radically altered?
The centrality of Golden Hour within Desert of Pharan lies in its capacity to hold these opposing temporalities and forms of movement within a single image. The viewer’s gaze is drawn towards the Kaaba and the pilgrims at the centre of the image, illuminated by the warm light of the setting sun. Around them, a vast field of cranes, construction equipment and newly erected infrastructure extends across the foreground, while the mountains remain visible in the distance. The resulting spatial arrangement places the sacred centre of Mecca within an environment increasingly dominated by the apparatus of construction. The cranes themselves form a powerful visual counterpoint to the pilgrims. Their movement is mechanical and directional: they rotate, lift and construct, embodying the accelerated rhythms of contemporary urban development. The pilgrims, by contrast, move in continuous circumambulation around the Kaaba, performing a ritual whose continuity stretches across centuries. Mater places these two systems of movement within the same visual field, setting the linear momentum of construction against the cyclical continuity of pilgrimage. In doing so, Golden Hour distils the central preoccupation of the series: the encounter between a landscape shaped by centuries of ritual and one being rapidly remade for the future.
This tension is further articulated through Mater's treatment of light. The construction site is illuminated by the harsh artificial glow of cranes and surrounding buildings, extending human activity into the night and reinforcing the relentless momentum of development. Against this, the setting sun introduces a slower and more elemental rhythm. Its warm light descends across the landscape, catching the mountain in the distance and momentarily shifting attention away from the machinery below. Unlike the cranes, the movement of the sun is beyond human control: cyclical, gradual and indifferent to the pace of construction. This interplay of artificial and natural light produces the photograph’s almost mystical atmosphere. For a fleeting moment, the warm light of the setting sun appears to overwhelm the immense apparatus of modernity surrounding the sacred site, introducing stillness into an image otherwise defined by movement and acceleration. The mountains, too, acquire significance within this temporal contrast: they evoke the geological and historical scale of the landscape even as the construction below signals its rapid physical transformation.
Golden Hour ultimately holds these different temporalities and movements in suspension. The enduring ritual of pilgrimage, the ancient landscape and the sacred architecture of the Kaaba coexist with cranes, infrastructure and the expanding metropolis. Rather than resolving the contradictions between them, Mater leaves them open, creating an image in which Mecca’s past, present and future are held simultaneously.
Born in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, in 1979, Ahmed Mater is one of the leading figures of contemporary Saudi art. He trained as a physician while developing his artistic practice at the Al-Meftaha Arts Village in Abha, an experience that established the dialogue between science, faith and visual culture that continues to inform his work. Working across painting, sculpture, photography, installation and video, Mater has developed an expansive practice over more than two decades, exploring the intersections of religion, modernisation, globalisation and Saudi identity. His acclaimed Desert of Pharan series has become one of the defining bodies of his practice. In 2017, the Brooklyn Museum presented Ahmed Mater: Mecca Journeys, a major exhibition centered on his photographic documentation of the holy city and its changing landscape.
Mater’s work is held in major international collections including LACMA, Los Angeles; the British Museum, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation (DAF), Beirut; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha. As co-founder of Edge of Arabia, he has also played an important role in connecting a new generation of Saudi artists with international audiences. He lives and works in Riyadh.