Midnight, Dubai
New Year’s Eve · Dubai · 31 December 2025 · 11:49 pm to 12:13 am
Not a forest, and not an animal in sight. On the last night of 2025 I stood on a beach in Dubai with a few thousand other people, all facing the same stretch of dark water and a bridge lit blue, waiting for the same second.
The first frame is at 11:49. At 12:00:01 the sky went off, and for five minutes everyone on the shore was a silhouette. By 12:13 the bridge had its reflection back to itself. The frames are in the order they were made.
11:49 pm — the crowd arriving on the shore
11:49 pm — the tower under cloud
11:54 pm — six minutes to go
11:56 pm — waiting at the water’s edge
12:00:01 am — the first second of the year
12:00 am — green
12:00 am — red
12:02 am — three at once
12:02 am — gold over the water
12:03 am — falling
12:05 am — smoke and the last bursts
12:07 am — afterwards
12:11 am — lit windows
12:13 am — the bridge has the water to itself again
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