The Empty Quarter, Rub al-Chali, Saudi Arabia, 2024

"We were actually on our way to Djibouti with the Foreign Minister until we were denied overflight over Eritrea. We had to go to Jeddah on short notice, and then the next day, via a detour around Yemen to Kenya – there was no other way to reach Kenya due to the many conflicts. On the flight from Jeddah to Nairobi, we flew over the "empty quarter" of Saudi Arabia, where almost no people live – and so we could see how peaceful the earth could be without humanity." - Florian Gaertner