It is 20 years since Sunny Rahbar, Claudia Cellini and Omar Ghobash joined forces to open The Third Line, a contemporary art gallery in Dubai. It was 2005, and a time when outlets for creativity from the Middle East and wider region were much needed in the simmering aftermath of 9/11.

Although Lamya Gargash often turns her lens to forgotten spaces, vacant rooms or objects, it is the trace of human presence that she seeks to capture. In the rapidly modernising UAE, change is a subject that continually draws attention, but in Gargash’s work there is also a kind of stillness. A viewer can sense traces of the people that once inhabited the space, or the forces of nature that are taking over. It is a documentation of transition.

The stories behind this collection of wonderful portraits are as compelling as the images themselves.