Roderick Aichinger for Monocle, Issue May

The London-based Monocle Magazine sent Roderick Aichinger and Foreign Editor Steve Bloomfield to Al Jazeera, the tv station that has made Qatar’s capital the centre of the arab world. Al Jazeera has become the must-watch news channel for the unrest in the Middle East and North Africa. Roderick spent hours stuck at security checkpoints until he finally got unprecedented access to the studios of Al Jazeera. In the wirlwind of breaking news in the region it was a challenge to get hold of people who are used to reporting and less so to be the object of attention themselves. Portrait sessions had literally to be accomplished during commercial breaks in an ongoing 24 hours news coverage. Getting three news anchors on one picture involved meticulous planning over a two day period. The potent soft power of the news channel and the massive wealth of the country have made the small country a sizeable player in the region. Outside  the studios Roderick ventured out into the rapidly growing city of Doha. Searching for the perfect cityscape he finally climbed up to the 50th floor of an unfinished skyscraper. 

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