In just 50 years, Dubai has risen from the desert with colossal ambition. From a small fishing port to an expanded creek to the ever-growing urban clusters of gleaming towers today. The skyline appears in the morning like a mirage in a UV miasma. Still there is rapid expansion with a daily flurry of vaulting cranes and armies of workers. How is all this possible? How is this city expanding across the Sahara instead of burning away? The mirage-like impossibility of Dubai is part of the attraction, and many places in Dubai seem to defy probability and prudence. Using a specially converted camera I set out to photograph in infrared some of the wild ambition, simulation and allure of this strange city risen out of hot sand.