I Explored Socotra Island — A Place Unlike Anywhere Else (30 Pics)

My journey as a photographer began at the age of 14 when I started learning photo editing software and making collages on my own. At 16 I got my first camera and I couldn't stop shooting. I've been shooting for 18 years.

The trance I go into when I create, besides other stuff, is probably the main thing that makes me interested in photography.

A friend showed me the island and at the same time, we were invited there by a local travel company. You can only get there with a package tour, since tickets for charters from Abu Dhabi can only be bought from Socotra Island, and the plane flies only once a week. And at the airport on this day, there was a real stir from the inhabitants of the island - they come to look at the tourists standing in line for registration.

No, there were no difficulties. There was one episode with a trip from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, it was April 2021, and strange coronavirus restrictions caught up with us. We traveled from one emirate to another in our GPS bracelets. Like prisoners so that they don't run out of the taxi into the street, apparently. But they were removed at the airport, and we flew to Socotra. On Socotra, they also did tests using blood sampling.

The most challenging part of shooting and the only difficulty there was the lack of electricity. The island is wild, and you can only live in a tent, so we tried to keep mobile and cameras charged. Well, it's hot, but it's hot in a lot of places in the world. And, I also recommend that you always close the tent, on the island, in addition to scorpions, there are harmful goats that eat just everything. Including endemic trees - Dragon trees and Bottle trees.

What fascinated me the most about the island were small bottle trees and huge white kilometer dunes. From May to October, hurricane-force winds blow on Socotra, blowing these mountains of sand from the deserts of Africa. Unique place. And of course the Dragon's trees with red blood instead of juice.

I always have many projects in parallel, and they are again about the beauty and uniqueness of our world. About the fact that the world is more magnificent than everyone can photograph it!