Vertical Vision. Aerial Photography, Petroleum Prospecting and the City of the Future

The paper examines the history of aerial photography as pivotal (petroleum-based) technology of oil prospecting and later of urban planning in the Gulf region. In particular, it analyzes the subsequent establishment of a visual regime of viewing the region remotely from above. Taking Kuwait as a case study, I argue that the aerial view stimulated urban visions, disembodied imaginaries of a future city of Kuwait. And disseminated as map-like illustrations in newspaper and journal articles on Kuwait, the abstract vertical vision of Kuwait City became an influential visual representation of the country, and, implicitly, also of petroleum.