TIMOTHY ALLEN

HOLED UP in his room in Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates, Timothy Allen is waiting for news of his transfer to another hotel in the neighbouring city of Dubai.

This trip to the warm sunshine and high rise cities of the Gulf states is a rare respite from the freezing winter skies and silent hedge-lined lanes of his home in rural Wales. But, as we talk screen-to-screen via the powers of Zoom, I wonder if he really has found relief from COVID’s smothering reach? Apart from a large cliché picture of camels and orange sand dunes on the wall behind him, he could be speaking from any airport hotel cell at Heathrow or Gatwick. So, how’s it going, Tim? “It’s like everything is 20 or 30 times harder to organize, it’s almost like you want to give up”, he exclaims. “I’m not quarantining, I’m just testing regularly. I’ve had two tests already, one just before I left, one on arrival and I’m having one every two days while I’m here. It’s the only way to try and get some normal life regardless of what your feelings are about the virus.”

What brings you to the Emirates?

I run a photography scholarship here. My students are just arriving, but unfortunately, two of them couldn’t make it due to COVID. I started this scholarship five years ago. It’s funded by the Sharjah government. I get to invite five photographers from anywhere in the world who I feel could do well with having more exposure, so I’m on the end of the phone whenever they need me during the year and we bring them out to the Middle East for ten days. We have an intensive five-day workshop, and when the workshop ends there’s a festival called Xposure, which must be one of the largest photo festivals in the world.

I’ve never been, what’s it like?

It’s incredible, it really is. If you come out here it’s like