Issue 01 · Stillness — Rub' al Khali · 2026

The Quiet Desert

Eleven winters walking the Empty Quarter, where the loudest sound is your own breath.

Photographs by Yusuf Al-Rashid

First light on the leeward face. The dune had moved four metres since last winter. — First light on the leeward face. The dune had moved four metres since last winter.Photo: Nepenthes · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

A camel track, three days old, straight as a sentence. — A camel track, three days old, straight as a sentence.Photo: Txllxt TxllxT · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Noon. Everything vertical hides. — Noon. Everything vertical hides.Photo: Karan Dhawan India · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

The last frame of the walk — wind erasing the day's work behind us. — The last frame of the walk — wind erasing the day's work behind us.Photo: Xenia Ivanoff Erb · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

— End of story —

Where

Rub' al Khali, Oman19.50°, 54.50°

The photographer

Yusuf Al-Rashid

Yusuf has walked sections of the Empty Quarter every winter for eleven years. He works in silence, at dawn, with a single fixed lens.

Next in this issue

North Sea, Winter

North Sea, Winter