Waiting for Qatar
Gregor Schmidt is a Berlin-based photographer and graduate of the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. He visited Qatar as part of the 2017 Qatar-Germany Year of Culture to continue an ongoing study of the nation in the run up to the 2022 World Cup.
Begun in 2014, "Waiting for Qatar" records a cross-section of life in Qatar, from urban construction to Arabian horse racing. Gregor's photographs contrast the bleached-out tonality of distant landscapes with the saturated colours of human-related activities. Their aesthetic mood is heightened by the strength of light of the desert sun, which lends the scenes a hyper-reality reflective of the intensity of life in the country.