Blade Runner | Old & New

Ridley Scott’s 1982 cult film Blade Runner depicts a neon-clad, futuristic metropolis in 2019. The city of Doha, in Qatar, shown in the first image here with its skyscrapers clothed in the fluorescence of a million bulbs, is reminiscent of Scott’s urban skyline. Of course Doha didn’t start like this, but rather as a modest pearl diving and fishing village. The symbol of the old way of life is the dhow, the traditional wooden fishing vessels still used today and shown in the second image, juxtaposed with the new.