ARAMCO: Above the Oil Fields

Ayesha Malik

BOOK INFO
Paper over Board, 13 X 11 in. / 196 Pages / 152 Color Photographs / 18 Inserts
ISBN 9781942084365
List Price: $50.00

“While the book is undoubtedly documentary, Ms. Malik’s account is first and foremost a personal investigation of her own memory.”,
- The New York Times, June 20, 2017

“Here, cultures that usually clash blend together, and identity outgrows simple, nationalistic terms.”,
- Aperture, September 14, 2017

...a strangely personal, honest, and childlike view of a place that, to most, seems bizarre.”,
- Vice, September 13, 2017

Photographs by Ayesha Malik
Contributions by Elizabeth Renstrom 

 In ARAMCO: Above the Oil Fields, Ayesha Malik delivers a personalized account of life within Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, a gated community originally created as a home for American employees of the Arabian American Oil Company (now known as Saudi Aramco). This small town houses the world's wealthiest company, which also owns the world's largest crude oil reserves. In 2018, as part of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 plan, the public sale of a percentage of the company is expected to be the biggest IPO in history, valued at around $2 trillion. Malik shares the surprising warmth, familiarity, and timelessness of this 22-and-a-half square-mile place that so many Aramcons call home. Malik's photographs provoke conversation about the perception of and preconceived ideas about a home that is neither fully Saudi nor fully American -- a home unlike any other.

Ayesha Malik
divides her time between New York City and Saudi Arabia working on self-directed photo projects. Her work has been featured in Time Lightbox, VICE Magazine, Le Monde's M Magazine, The New York Times, Refinery29, and Offset, amongst others.